Adverse Media Category
Adverse media is media coverage that may link individuals or companies to illicit activities.
Media coverage is gathered from various news sources that include web sites; international, national,
and local newspapers; magazines and periodicals; broadcasts; press releases; and news wires.
Associated Entity Category
The profiles in the Associated Entity category are linked to at least one sanctioned entity. Associated
entities are referred to or implied in sanctions sources, but are not explicitly named as sanctioned
entities in those sources.
Enforcement Category
Enforcement profiles are comprised of information that is received from international, national, and
state government and enforcement agencies.
Enforcements include the content of actions against individuals and companies. Examples of agencies
that provide enforcement information include securities and exchange commissions, central banks,
attorney generals, and state attorneys.
PEP Category
The WorldCompliance data includes the following individuals as PEPs: the family members of PEPs; the individuals who are related to PEPs by hereditary, marriage, or civil partnerships; and individuals who are socially or politically connected to PEPs. In this document, these individuals are referred to as secondary PEPs.
The international community recognizes that PEPs occupy positions that can be abused for the purpose of committing money-laundering offenses and related AML predicate offenses. These offenses include corruption and bribery or activities that are related to terrorist financing. The WorldCompliance PEP entity inclusion principles follow the systemic principles that are set by the FATF and the Wolfsberg Group. The FATF is an intergovernmental body that sets standards for combating money laundering and terrorism finance. The Wolfsberg Group is an association of global banks that develops frameworks to implement FATF recommendations.
The FATF and the Wolfsberg Group broadly outline PEPs as individuals who are or have been entrusted with prominent domestic or foreign public positions. These positions include heads of state or government, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials, senior executives of state owned enterprises, and senior political party officials. The WorldCompliance data includes individuals who are currently entrusted or who were previously entrusted with prominent public functions within their national governments or who are or were tasked with representing their governments in foreign relations. In this document, these individuals are referred to as primary PEPs.
The FATF recognizes that understanding a PEP's family members and close personal and business relationships are crucial to maintaining transparency in the international financial system as these individuals can serve as avenues for illicit activities or terrorist support on behalf of a PEP or in collusion with a PEP. Personal relationships may include connections among individuals that are widely known, publicly known, or that are reported by open-source news media. The nature of these relationships depends on social, cultural, and economic contexts. The family relationships of a PEP include lineage that is established through biological ancestry, adoption, legal guardianship, marriage, or civil forms of partnership.
Sanction List Category
Sanctions are restrictive measures typically imposed on countries, organizations, vessels, and businesses to force a change in behaviour.
Sanctions are imposed by countries or supranational bodies such as the EU or the UN. Sanctions can include financial and economic penalties, trade and travel bans, asset freezes, suspension from international organizations, withdrawal of aid, arms and trade embargoes, or other measures.
SOE (State-Owned Enterprise/Entity) Category
W2 profiles an SOE because its connection to government funding can make the SOE vulnerable to corruption.
FATF recommends that financial institutions understand the ownership of an SOE. FATF also recommends that financial institutions perform enhanced due diligence on SOE leadership and management executives, who are considered to be PEPs.
An SOE is a legal entity (for example, corporation or service) that is created by a single government, or in cooperation with other governments, that undertakes activities for a specific commercial purpose on behalf of its investor states. An SOE is typically formed to make profits for the state; however, an SOE can provide services that may not make a profit but provide a necessary benefit to a country’s citizenry (for example, transportation or mail services). These services and projects include healthcare, transport, utilities, university-level education institutions, construction, energy, and telecommunications. Governments determine the purpose of the SOE and appoint individuals who implement business strategies.
An SOE in WorldCompliance data can be a SWF (sovereign wealth fund). An SWF is a special purpose
investment fund or arrangement that is created and owned by a government. Governments create an SWF to hold, manage, and administer state assets to achieve certain macroeconomic objectives.
Governments derive these assets from many sources. Examples include a country’s balance of payments surplus, foreign currency operations, fiscal surpluses, and proceeds from the privatization of industries or commodity exports (for example, oil).
The government owner sets the purpose of the SWF, appoints the members of its governing bodies, and conducts oversight on their actions. Based on the goals that the government has set for the SWF, these governing bodies set the strategies and policies for the management of the SWF. The governing bodies depend on the type of SWF. Usually, the governing body is a board of directors, a committee, or a commission; however, the governing body can also be a ministry of finance or central bank when the SWF is a pool of assets.