Entity search

When it comes to fincrime, it’s not just knowing your customer (KYC) you have to worry about but knowing the businesses (KYB) you deal with as well. Simply put, it’s not always one particular person you need to watch out for, but rather a legal entity fraudsters are hiding behind. As part of SEON’s AML tool, the entity search functionality allows you to uncover suspicious businesses, vessels, NGOs, and other organizations, adding an extra layer of security to your fraud-repellent ward. Being aware of financial alerts can save you money by avoiding risky actors who conduct financial crimes while also saving money by avoiding non-compliant fines.

Tip: Entity search is an API-only feature only available through the AML API.

It is standard practice for companies having to run AML checks to be required to search for companies in addition to people. Our entity search functionality offers a complete and always up-to-date search engine based on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards for businesses that must comply with numerous international sanctions.

Our database contains data on sanctioned entities, let it be a person or an organization. This information includes their names, country of origin, date, and place of birth, reasoning why they are sanctioned, in addition to other relevant information that could be important for assessing a customer's risk and, consequently, mitigating the risk of becoming a non-compliant firm.

Given that our reach is global, disqualified directors and debarred organizations, persons and entities subject to national warnings, and corrupt officials all over the world are detected and delivered to our customers, making the job of AML compliance officers easier.

SEON’s database also distinguishes between minor and severe financial transgressions in order to focus on issues that pose the greatest risk to our consumers. The severity of various instances is regularly assessed.

Using entity search is simple: include a company name and country information in your search queries. Please note that the AML entity API only supports exact searches: company names are usually unique within a particular jurisdiction, and applying fuzzy search may result in more false positive hits without improving coverage.

You also have the option to set up monitoring for entities. By enabling monitoring, you can receive notifications via webhooks when there’s a change in a company's status (e.g. it was added to a sanctions list).

Learn more: Head over to the API reference page to see how to run an entity search query. 

You can screen a wide range of individuals and companies flagged as risky by financial institutions worldwide with the entity search functionality.

Being flagged can be a consequence of the following:

• Committing fraud (which can mean major infractions, such as insurance fraud),
• Failure to adhere to court-issued obligations,
• Revocation of license due to a serious breach of norms,
• Offering unregistered securities,
• Suspension and debarment,
• Being an accomplice in criminal money laundering,
• Being convicted of a crime involving dishonesty or breach of trust,
• Lack of business honesty or integrity.

Our data includes the names of the flagged businesses, their primary country of interest, the cause for being placed on a watchlist, as well as the issue number and issue data. There is also additional information about associated entities for an individual or company in several cases, which can help you with linking and mapping relations between entities.

Tip: This is also a good tool for finding close associates and business partners in the case of Politically Exposed Persons.

Here’s the list of data sources being checked when searching for suspicious entities:

• Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) non-SDN sanctions lists
• Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List
• European Union Financial Sanctions
• HM Treasurys Office for Financial Sanctions
• United Nations Security Council, Sanctions
• Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Consolidated Sanctions List
• State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Sanctions and Embargos
• Bureau for Industry and Security (BIS), Denied Persons List
• Global Affairs Canada, Sanctions
• The World Bank, Listing of Ineligible Firms and Individuals
• African Development Bank, Debarment and Sanctions Procedures
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Debarment List
• Inter-American Development Bank, Sanctioned firms and individuals
• European Commission, The EU Air Safety List
• Ministry of Interior Sate of Qatar, Sanctions List
• Public Registry of Persons and Entities linked to acts of Terrorism and their Financing
• The Financial Monitoring Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Sanction list
• The State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, Sanctions list
• Consolidated Sanctions List of the Kyrgyz Republic
• Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysis Center of Indonesia, List of
• Suspected Terrorists and Terrorist Organizations
• USA Office of Inspector General List of Excluded Individuals/Entities
• New Zealand Police,  Designated terrorist entities
• National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel
• Egyptian Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Unit
• National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Sanctions list
• SEBI Debarred Entities
• South African Targeted Financial Sanctions
• Belgian Financial Sanctions
• French Freezing of Assets
• Bulgarian sanctions
• Poland / List of persons and entities subject to sanctions
• Netherland sanctions
• Irish Tax and Customs
• Malta Financial Services Authority
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
• Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
• National Baking and Stock Commission of Mexico
• National Securities Commission of Argentina
• Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Canadian Securities Administrators
• Financial Sector Conduct Authority (South Africa)
• U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (US)
• British Columbia Securities Commission
• Financial Markets Authority New Zealand
• Monetary Authority of Singapore
• Securities and Futures Commission (Hong Kong)
• U.S Securities and Exchange Commission
• Lietuvos Bankas
• Finanssivalvonta (Finland)
• Financial and Capital Market Commission (Latvia)
• Autoritatea de Supreveghere Financiara (Romania)
• Central Bank of Ireland
• Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority
• Agencija za trg vrednostnih papirjev (Slovenia)
• Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (France)
• Hellenic Capital Market Commission
• Finanstilsynet (Norway)
• Finansinspektionen (Sweden)
• Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin, Germany)
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA, UK)
• International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
• Hungarian National Bank

Note: For the complete list of data sources SEON’s AML API collects potential hits from, please visit this page.