What is Real-Time Payments Screening for Sanctions?
Payment screening plays a vital role in enforcing the application of sanctions regimes. Screening is a regulatory requirement to prevent transactions linked to sanctioned parties from being processed.
Financial institutions must stay abreast of sanctions risk and expectations to ensure their programs are current. The bar for regulatory compliance continues to rise, bringing with it increased risk and the potential of fines or reputational damage for getting it wrong.
The challenges associated with payments screening include:
- Multiple Data Sources to Analyze: Analyzing large volumes of data within a short timeframe can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, leading to delays in identifying potential risks. Financial institutions must keep up with real-time requirements for party and payment screening against an increasing number of data sources, including sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEP) lists, to avoid transactions with government-sanctioned parties
- High False-Positive Rates: Screening may generate many false positive alerts, requiring manual review and investigation, which can be labor-intensive and hinder operational efficiency. Legacy solutions and existing processes are not keeping up
- Source Data Quality: Ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the data used for screening is crucial, as incorrect or incomplete information can lead to missed risks or false identifications. Financial institutions need the flexibility to choose which real-time, best-of-breed data sources to monitor to effectively manage risk
Real-time payments screening refers to the process of quickly and continuously analyzing financial transactions in real time to identify and block a sanctioned party's transactions. This screening process is typically employed by financial institutions and payment service providers to enforce sanctions and prevent parties from using financial services in jurisdictions in which they are sanctioned.
The primary goal of real-time payments screening is to detect and prevent transacting business with sanctioned individuals and entities while meeting regulatory requirements, avoiding fines for non-compliance or reputational damage due to conducting business with sanctioned parties.
How NICE Actimize Helps
NICE Actimize's proven and trusted AI-powered screening solution, WL-X, gives you the means to stay ahead of ever tightening regulations and continually shifting sanctions risk and expectations.
- Always-Accurate Data: Tap into a vast network of reliable global sources, ensuring your screening lists are always accurate
- Real Time and On Demand: Screen parties and payments against global sanctions and other watchlists in real time, batch or on demand
- Always-On AI: Our AI is proven to drive ongoing optimization, reduce false positives and strengthen true positive accuracy
- Comprehensive Controls: Take full control of your screening program from which data is screened and which lists are utilized to what scoring thresholds are set and how hits are managed, with full management oversight
By leveraging NICE Actimize's screening capabilities, financial institutions can streamline their compliance processes, improve operational efficiency, and enhance their ability to detect and prevent financial crimes.
Learn more about NICE Actimize's Screening solution here.