KYC products reviewed in VIP
Jinfo Blog

11th February 2009

By Penny Crossland

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Anti-money laundering legislation requires companies in a variety of sectors to verify their customers’ identities and to scrutinise the purpose of any business relationship. To assist businesses in complying with AML legislation and to minimize financial, legal and reputational risk, several database suppliers have developed ‘Know Your Customer’ products. Two products - Dow Jones Risk & Compliance (formerly known as Factiva PFA) and LexisNexis KYC - are reviewed in issue 63 of VIP. Dow Jones Risk & Compliance offers an integrated compliance solution, consisting of 500,000 records on ‘politically exposed persons’ (PEPs) worldwide, their close associates and relatives, those on sanctions lists and high profile convicted criminals. Entries of individuals include aliases, spelling variations (especially useful for Arabic names) and career and biographical data. Images of PEPs are also provided, where available. Other features include a PEP Risk Score Tool, which enables compliance staff to assess risk levels, country profiles and a news search facility that provides users with access to all Factiva’s news sources. The interface is available in four other languages apart from English (Spanish, German, French and Russian) and an alert service can be incorporated into an in-house compliance system. A clutter-free and intuitive search screen and clear report formats make this a user-friendly KYC tool that can be used by the less experienced searcher. LexisNexis KYC is a one-stop shop for all KYC information covering companies and individuals. It is especially useful for identifying small companies worldwide and for finding information on hard-to-find individuals. The database draws on the vast LexisNexis news and legal information archive for its international news, company and biographical sources. Specialist KYC information, such as PEP listings and sanctions lists, is supplied by partner companies. Users requiring company information can access more than 150 databases, including 130 million Dun & Bradstreet reports. News sources and a pre-set negative news string are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch and Italian. LexisNexis KYC provides more search and results options than Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, requiring the expertise of a more experienced searcher to get the most out of the breadth of information sources available. However, both products are useful compliance tools, providing users with the information they need to make sure they really know their customers. For the full review, including details of searches, screen shots and VIP’s View of the product, check out VIP No 63 or start a new subscription at http://www.vivavip.com/order/.

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