REFINITIV® WORLD-CHECK®
RISK INTELLIGENCE
ABOUT WORLD-CHECK
Overview Global coverage
Refinitiv® World-Check® Risk Intelligence is World-Check has content from every inhabited location on earth –
a risk intelligence database designed for 245 countries and dependent territories
use in screening programs for anti-money
laundering, sanctions, and anti-bribery and
corruption compliance.
Using open-source intelligence (OSINT), it
provides highly structured and high-quality
intelligence on heightened risk individuals and
entities from public domain data that is:
• Global • Associated
• Aggregated • Enhanced
• Deduplicated • Narrative
• Structured • Accurate
• Analytical
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THE WORLD-CHECK CONTENT AND USE CASES
What is in the data? Use cases
World-Check has highly analytical inclusion World-Check is used to screen clients, payments,
criteria aligned to legislation. Inclusion is suppliers, agents and intermediaries, vessels, UBOs,
thus “limited by design” and aims to cover all SMOs, other third parties, securities and more, in order
and only the content required for screening. to identify:
• Possible explicitly or implicitly sanctioned entities,
The six buckets of content:
individuals, securities or places
• Politically exposed persons and their relatives
Sanctions PEPs and RCAs
and close associates
• Entities or individuals that are listed or wanted by
Law Enforcement SOEs and SIEs law or regulatory enforcement agencies
• People or entities about whom there is reliable,
Regulatory
Adverse Media relevant and material adverse media
Enforcement
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KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS
World-Check is a global World-Check is designed and
standard, trusted by 8,000+ structured to minimize
customers in 180+ countries operational cost and lower
total cost of ownership
World-Check is constantly World-Check is globally
updated with 50K+ new comprehensive, with 4.5
records and 100K+ records million+ records
reviewed each month
World-Check’s sanctions World-Check has strict
content is updated 24/7/365 quality-controlled inclusion
and is ISAE 3000 certified on criteria to ensure accuracy
an annual basis and relevance
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ABOUT THE DATA
THE WORLD-CHECK CONTENT: REGULATORY DRIVERS
The World-Check content is driven by and aligned to legislation and
regulation; it is designed to help clients comply with regulatory obligations, Sanctions
such as:
Sanctions Law enforcement
• OFAC, CAATSA, UN, UKHMT, CANS, MINEFI, DFAT and hundreds more
Anti-money laundering Regulatory
• FATF and Wolfsberg guidance, BSA, USA PATRIOT Act, 4MLD and 5MLD
enforcement
Anti-bribery and corruption
• FCPA, UKBA, OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, UN Convention against Corruption
PEPs and RCAs
Countering the financing of terrorism
• UN Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, FATF, USA PATRIOT Act
Anti-organized crime SOEs and SIEs
• Palermo Convention, POCA, RICO
Human rights and supply chains
• UK Modern Slavery Act, Dodd-Frank Act, California Transparency in Supply Chains Act Negative media
Environmental legislation
• EU Timber Regulation, U.S. Lacey Act
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WORLD-CHECK CONTAINS DATA ABOUT …
Countries Individuals Companies State-owned Criminal and
and regions and banks entities terrorist groups
Ports Aircraft Vessels International Other entities
and airports organizations
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SANCTIONS COVERAGE
Sanctions is our highest priority and receives dedicated 24/7/365
attention. World-Check covers:
• All known sanctions lists: 280+ lists
• 100% coverage: external assurance with ISAE 3000 audit of major 280+ sanctions
sanctions lists on an annual basis lists covered
• Major sanctions lists monitored and covered on a 24/7/365 basis
• Special team dedicated to covering all sanctions lists as well as Sanctions comprise
dedicated quality control approximately
• Records are keyworded allowing flexible screening
0.76%
• Records are deduplicated, reducing noise by ~70%
of the data
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IMPLICIT SANCTIONS COVERAGE AND OFAC 50% RULE
Implicit sanctions apply when a sanctions order, listing or
Example implicit sanctions
regulation extends sanctions to an entity or individual not keywords
sanctioned by name via a narrative statement. The classic example
• INSAE-WC: International
of this is the OFAC 50% rule, but it also applies to EU, UN and Sanctions Relevant Entity World-
Russian sanctions. Check Data
World-Check: • VEPTRE-WC: Venezuela
Prohibited Transactions Relevant
• Has dedicated teams that conduct extensive qualitative research to Entity World-Check Data
uncover such entities and individuals • CAATSA228-WC: Relatives of
UKR/RUS Specially Designated
• Covers every implicit sanctions regime Nationals
• Covers sanctioned securities such as the ISINs, CUSIPs and SEDOLs • RUUSEM-50-WC: Russian
Ukraine Special Economic
of financial instruments issued by sanctioned entities Measures – Entity owned 50%
or more by a sanctioned
• Records are keyworded individual/entity
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LAW ENFORCEMENT COVERAGE
Law enforcement agencies are bodies that are responsible for
ensuring that the laws are obeyed. Examples are U.S. Department
of Justice, INTERPOL, FBI, Serious Fraud Office, CBBI, RCMP.
• Contains records of entities and individuals who are wanted,
130+
investigated or arrested by an official law enforcement body law enforcement
• Coverage includes all content of such law enforcement lists, not just lists covered
World-Check crimes
• Special teams are dedicated to monitoring all law enforcement lists
• Records are keyworded
Law enforcement
comprises
12%
of the World-Check data
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REGULATORY ENFORCEMENT COVERAGE
Regulatory enforcements are protective restrictive measures,
aiding in the prevention of criminal activity across local authority
boundaries and better coordination between local authorities and 380+
central governments.
regulatory lists
• Lists contain individuals or entities on which official regulatory covered
administrative action has been taken by government or independent
regulatory agencies
• Special teams are dedicated to monitoring regulatory enforcement lists
• Records are keyworded Regulatory
enforcement comprises
19% of the
World-Check data
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POLITICALLY EXPOSED PERSONS
There is no universal definition of who a PEP is, with significant
and increasing divergence between different regulators.
As a global default, World-Check has a highly analytical operational 1.9m+
PEP definition based on FATF and Wolfsberg guidance, but also politically exposed
flexes to cover local definitions where they exist. We monitor
legislation to ensure full coverage.
persons
• Covers both primary PEPs and relatives and close associates
• Special teams dedicated to PEPs in each country or regional team
• Records are subcategorized PEPs and SOEs comprise
42% of the
World-Check data
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PEP SUBCATEGORIES
All PEP records are subcategorized into one of 18 different categories:
PRIMARY IMMEDIATE CLOSE
PEP RELATIVES ASSOCIATIVES
International Organizations
PEP IO PEP IO-R PEP IO-A
Regional Organizations
PEP RO PEP RO-R PEP RO-A
National Government
PEP N PEP N-R PEP N-A
Subnational Government
PEP SN PEP SN-R PEP SN-A
Local Government
PEP L PEP L-R PEP L-A
Nongovernment
PEP NG PEP NG-R PEP NG-A
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STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES
State-owned enterprises State-invested enterprises
SOEs are legal entities in which the SIEs are entities where the government/state
government/state holds more than a 50 percent holds more than a 10 percent and less than
direct, indirect or combined indirect shareholding. a 50 percent direct, indirect or combined indirect
shareholding.
Senior officials (Primary PEPs) of such SOEs and
their immediate family members and close Senior officials of SIEs are not considered PEPs
associates (Secondary PEPs) are included in the and are not included in the database.
database and subcategorized in line with the World-
Check PEP inclusion criteria.
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ADVERSE MEDIA COVERAGE
World-Check covers adverse media on individuals or entities
reliably reported to be questioned, charged, wanted or accused
of a World-Check crime by a law enforcement or regulatory
enforcement body. Categories covered:
1.1m+
adverse media
records
24% of the
World-Check data
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ADDITIONAL CONTENT SETS
The U.S. System for Award Management (SAM) lists
U.S. SAM organizations that are restricted or prohibited from doing
business with the U.S. government.
Comply with the U.S. Government CISADA requirements and
screen for Iran-related risk exposure to steer clear of
Iran Economic Interest sanctions breaches. A database containing links to Iran’s
energy, financial, insurance, trade and transportation sectors.
For payment processing compliance, to be used as part of
Sanction Set an automated compliance screening process. This data set
contains purely the information appearing on sanctions
regulatory lists containing named individuals and entities.
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THE DATA IS HIGHLY STRUCTURED
Highly structured fields for flexible screening
Identifiers
Last Name
Primary
Aliases Alternative Spelling
The data is highly structured,
First Name Low Quality E/I
with 34+ fields with exact
definitions.
Secondary Identifiers
Age Deceased Locations
Age Date (as of date) Passports Countries
DOBS Identification Numbers Citizenship
Records are grouped in multiple
ways: keywords, categories,
Place of Birth
subcategories and more.
Category Linked to UID
Record Identifiers
Subcategory Companies
Entered
Biographical
Title Further Information
Updated
Position Keywords
PEP Status PEP Roles Update Category
External Sources
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RESEARCH PROCESS
THE BENEFIT OF GLOBAL COVERAGE, LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Gathering the extensive range of information needed for effective due diligence is an arduous, time-consuming task,
especially where the business relationship involves other countries, or where relevant information can be hard to find and
in a local language.
Benefits of using World-Check data
• 420+ researchers situated on five
continents
• 90+% of World-Check researchers speak
two or more languages
• Native-speaking researchers pick up on
textual or cultural subtleties in the text in a
way that multilingual speakers do not
Key:
Difficulty finding information
Low difficulty
Medium difficulty
High difficulty
Research hubs
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WORLD-CHECK RESEARCH NATIVE LANGUAGE CAPABILITIES
• Afrikaans • Dutch • Hindi • Nepalese • Tagalog
• Albanian • English • Hokkien • Norwegian • Tamil
• Arabic • Estonian • Hungarian • Odia • Telugu
• Assamese • Faroese • Italian • Polish • Teochew
• Bahasa • Farsi • Japanese • Portuguese • Thai
• Belarusian • Filipino • Kannada • Punjabi • Turkish
• Bengali • Flemish • Korean • Pushto • Ukrainian
• Bosnian • French • Latvian • Romanian • Urdu
• Bulgarian • German • Lithuanian • Russian • Uzbek
• Burmese • Georgian • Malay • Serbian • Vietnamese
• Chinese • Greek • Mandarin • Slovak • Xhosa
• Croatian • Gujarati • Marathi • Spanish • Zulu
• Czech • Hakka • Minnan • Swahili
• Danish • Hebrew • Montenegrin • Swedish
Please note that this list is subject to change from time to time and should not be used as the definitive list, but as a guide to the breadth of languages covered from around the globe.
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VERIFICATION SOURCES
100,000+ media sources covered
Source ONLY credible,
STRICT ADHERENCE 10,700+
to stringent research guidelines global information
reputable negative media
and inclusion criteria resource lists monitored
An ethical approach is used to gather data: The following may not be used to add risk
• World-Check records are compiled using only open- allegations to records but may be the source for
source information “secondary identifiers”:
• Each record is compiled by following structured • Blog sites/discussion forums
methodology • Magazine sites
• Researchers are required to adhere to stringent research • Personal opinion sites
guidelines and inclusion criteria including strict adherence • Tabloid newspapers
to not using verification sources on the matrix of non-
reputable sources • Wikipedia/WikiLeaks
• Unauthorized subscription sites
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SPECIALIST RESEARCH
The specialist research teams are composed of subject-matter
and regional experts and support particular focus areas, such as: 10,700+
• Dedicated sanctions and regulatory monitoring unit global information resource
• PEP monitoring and updating, including SOEs and SIEs across lists monitored
multiple regions
• Threat finance (CFT/CTF)
800+
• Organized crime sanction, regulatory and
• Human rights abuses law enforcement lists
• Environmental crimes
5,900+
official/government sites
monitored
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PERFORMANCE AND CONTENT
Why PEP screening
Average new records is not enough
added per month:
More than half of our risk
50,000+ 44%
PEP
56%
Non-PEP
intelligence is made up of
non-PEP information,
highlighting the need for a
risk-based approach that
Average records matures beyond PEP
screening alone.
reviewed per month:
80,000+ 99.2%
of our content is
non-sanctions
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ADVANCED FEATURES AND
OPERATIONAL COST
WORLD-CHECK ADVANCED: BENEFITS AT A GLANCE
Feature Standard Advanced Benefit
Accurate, fully structured, aggregated and deduplicated risk intelligence
All Basic Content ✓ ✓ that helps reduce the risk of not complying
Improves the efficiency of match resolution. Reduces alert volumes
Field Updates ✓ generated during ongoing screening*
Generates fewer false positive matches during initial and ongoing
Segregating Low-Quality Aliases ✓ screening
Update Classification ✓ Reduce alert volumes generated in ongoing screening
Reduces alert volumes by eliminating geographic PEP over-screening
PEP Subclassification ✓ during initial and ongoing screening.* Allows risk ranking
Reduces alert volumes by eliminating temporal PEP over-screening
PEP Expiration* ✓ during initial and ongoing screening
Allows screening against native character names reducing false
Native Character Aliases ✓ negatives
*In Data-File only
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MANAGING OPERATIONAL COST IN WORLD-CHECK
The features and structured fields designed to help you manage operational cost *Requires World-Check Advanced
Update categorization* PEP expiration* for Secondary identifiers for Highly structured data
for managing ongoing managing both initial and reducing false positives that allows extensive
screening alert volume ongoing alert volume configuration
• Category
31%
• Keywords
• Country
55%
8% • Position
6%
• Etc.
PEP subcategories* for risk- Dynamic Download Field updates* for Native character aliases*
ranking and PEP filtering (and soon Advanced Dynamic efficient remediation for accurate native name
(e.g., PEP level with country) Download*) to simplify data of AML data deltas screening (without machine
ingestion transliteration)
• >2M native names
• 49 languages
• Arabic, Chinese, Russian,
Japanese, Hebrew, etc.
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THREE FLEXIBLE DELIVERY OPTIONS
World-Check Data File World-Check One World-Check One API
Services: data only and Services: SaaS, data, matching, Services: SaaS, data, matching,
Dynamic Download hosting, ongoing screening, UI access hosting, ongoing screening, API
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THANK YOU
Refinitiv is one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, serving over 40,000 institutions in approximately 190 countries. It provides
leading data and insights, trading platforms, and open data and technology platforms that connect a thriving global financial markets community – driving performance
in trading, investment, wealth management, regulatory compliance, market data management, enterprise risk and fighting financial crime.
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