SimpleOFAC Suite™ Tips of the Day
There are quite a few factors that affect how the alerts are generated:
By default, the transaction(such as ACH, SWIFT messages etc) and customer information (such as CIF etc) are scan against the name and alternate name (alt.) of the sanction lists. The sanction lists we maintain are
Threshold is a matching percentage that must be exceeded to allow the result as an alert.
Default is 30% or above match will be considered as an alert.
The a matching percentage is called score.
For individual, both first and last name should have kind of match, in order to produce an alert.
For example, BREDENKAMP, John in the sdn list, and we do not want to produce a alert for any first name is John.
In other word, if you type only John, the filter will produce no alerts.
If you type only BREDENKAMP, the filter will produce no alerts either.
Scan mode is how Filter engine uses to do the name match. Currently there are three scan modes, Loose, Medium and Strict. The default mode is Medium.
Filter engine scans the customer data or financial transaction against the sanction list, produces alert or no alert results. Some alerts are true alerts, while others are false alerts. There are some entries in the sanction list, produces large volume of false alerts. Exceptions, also called Good Guys are used to eliminate those false alerts. Each Sanction List entry can have 0 to many Exceptions. If the customer data match the sanction list name, at the same time, the customer data also 100% match the exception name, the filter engine will ignore the alert and produce no alert result.
The presence of a country's name on this index does not necessarily mean that the entire country is sanctioned. Each sanctions program is unique because each is designed to achieve specific foreign policy goals. Some programs may be very comprehensive, while others may be limited, involving only certain individuals. Many are somewhere in between. Because they vary widely, a compliance officer typically reviews each program for its requirements.
You should take appropriate due diligence steps to make certain that a match is valid. Even if you obtain a match that appears to be a close match, additional research is needed to decide whether you have a true match or false positive. In some cases, the name you enter will be similar to (or the same as) a target's name, but the rest of the information provided differs from that of the true entity on the sanction list