NewsroomSanctions watch
Clean today, sanctioned tomorrow: screening is not a box you tick once
Most onboarding treats sanctions and PEP screening as a one-time box. The name comes back clear and the contract is signed. Six months later that entity appears on a new designation, a director becomes politically exposed, or adverse media breaks, and nobody notices until it is already a problem.
· 2 MIN READ · BY THE KYCK DESK
Counterparty risk is not a snapshot
Designations are published continuously, and they land on entities that were clean the day before. The gap between your last check and today is your exposure, and the longer the file sits, the wider it gets.
Screen the structure, not the signatory
A name check on the person who signs the contract misses most of the risk. Politically exposed persons sit in ownership and control structures more often than in signature blocks, and a sanctioned owner makes the entity a problem even when the entity itself is not listed. The screening pass has to cover the company, its directors, its beneficial owners and, in maritime trade, the vessels involved.
What continuous means here
- Screening against global sanctions and watchlists at onboarding, with explainable match scores rather than a yes or no.
- PEP identification across the ownership and control structure, not just the signatory.
- Adverse media monitoring for the negative news a list-only check will never return.
- Re-screening triggered by list updates and by ownership changes, with a timestamped record of each pass.
The result is that you know your counterparty on day one and still know them on day two hundred. See how sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening runs as one pass, or the directory of sanctions authorities behind it.
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