Trusted by leading businesses
Reduce false positives and boost your compliance with HLBNGA's global PEP watchlist and screening solution.
| From | To | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan 2015 | 30 Jun 2018 | Director, national housing finance corporation |
| 01 Jul 2018 | — | Member, national assembly |
| 01 Jan 2021 | 31 Dec 2022 | Chairman, board of directors, Bank ABC |
| 01 Jan 2023 | — | Minister of finance |
Trusted by leading businesses
PEPs are at a higher risk of involvement in corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes — which is why regulators expect you to identify them.
PEP screening refers to the process of screening customers or business partners for Politically Exposed Persons. PEPs are individuals who hold a prominent public position or are closely associated with such individuals — government officials, political party leaders, and senior executives at state-owned enterprises. PEP screening matters because PEPs are at a higher risk of being involved in corruption, money laundering, or other financial crimes.
PEP screening software helps companies automate and streamline the screening process, reducing human error, building an audit trail, and ensuring consistency and scalability. Manually searching different sources is time-consuming and prone to errors, especially if those sources are not up to date. With PEP screening services you can screen large volumes of data quickly, and comply with AML and CTF regulations by ensuring all stakeholders are screened.
PEP status is about the role a person holds, or recently held, and the influence that comes with it. South Africa’s FIC Act and the FATF standards recognise several groups.
People in prominent South African public positions, such as the President and ministers, premiers and executive mayors, senior judges, military leaders and heads of key state-owned entities.
People in equivalent positions in other countries, including heads of state, members of royal families, senior politicians and party leaders, senior judges, senior executives of state-owned companies and high-ranking military officers.
A South African category for private-sector leaders, such as board and audit committee chairs, executive officers and CFOs, of companies that supply goods or services to the state.
Senior leaders of international bodies such as UN agencies, the African Union and development banks.
The same requirements extend to a PEP’s immediate family and to people known to be close business or personal associates, because influence and funds can move through them.
Most relationships with politically exposed persons are entirely legitimate. PEP status means the role carries a higher inherent risk of bribery or corruption, so the goal is proportionate due diligence, not automatic rejection.
A cabinet minister and a local councillor are both PEPs, but their exposure is very different. RiskSecure classifies every profile into four seniority levels, so you can apply the right depth of due diligence.
Heads of state and government, national ministers and legislators, and heads of the military, judiciary, central bank and law enforcement.
Regional government leaders, senior civil servants, senior military, law enforcement and judiciary, and religious leaders.
State-owned company executives, state agency officials and political party officials.
Mayors and local officials, international organisation officials, and labour and sporting body officials.
Risk also depends on the country, the products involved and any adverse media, so the level is a starting point for your risk assessment, not the final answer.
Identifying a PEP is the start of the process. Under the FIC Act, and in line with FATF Recommendation 12, accountable institutions are expected to:
Determine whether a client, or the client’s beneficial owner, is a PEP, PIP, family member or close associate, and keep checking as roles change.
Required before establishing or continuing the relationship with a foreign PEP, and with a domestic PEP or PIP whenever the relationship is assessed as high risk.
Take reasonable steps to understand where the client’s overall wealth, and the money involved in this relationship, comes from.
Review the relationship and its transactions more often and in more depth than for a standard client.
Your Risk Management and Compliance Programme should set out how you identify PEPs and PIPs and what you do when you find one.
Front-line and compliance teams need to recognise PEP indicators and know the escalation steps. See KAT for compliance training.
Most countries have regulations in place that require certain types of companies to screen their stakeholders for PEPs. The types of companies typically required to screen include:
Explore our diverse suite of products designed to enhance your business operations and security.
Precisely identifies potential matches with politically exposed persons, minimizing the risk of false positives and ensuring accurate compliance.
We continually collect and enrich multiple sources of PEP data through a combination of manual and automated methods, helping you prevent transactions with high-risk individuals.
RiskSecure applies machine learning to achieve human-like logic and semantics for alternative name detection, further reducing false positives and improving daily screening performance.
HLBNGA's modular PEP screening APIs, cloud-based or on-prem platforms can completely align with your workflows. We also have a user-friendly web tool available.
Reduce the need for manual screening processes, which can be time-consuming and costly, along with the extra staff and resources needed to manage compliance.
The solution provides an audit trail of all screening activities, which can help firms demonstrate their compliance with regulatory requirements.
Our professional service teams will integrate and configure RiskSecure to work seamlessly with your existing IT landscape and automatically alert you about any possible PEP relationships with ongoing smart surveillance. You’ll be notified as soon as related institutions or natural persons appear on any of the many global PEP lists we monitor.
Access PEP screening anywhere with our cloud-based platform, designed for simplicity and ease of use.
Integrate PEP screening into your existing systems with our cost-effective API — quick to set up, real-time monitoring.
Automatic, ongoing monitoring that alerts you to new risks as they emerge, helping you mitigate threats efficiently.
No complex software or API setup. Let us handle your bulk PEP/PIP screening and deliver results in Excel or CSV.
A key requirement under the FIC Act is identifying domestic and foreign politically exposed persons (DPEPs and FPEPs) and prominent influential persons (PIPs). Traditional providers generally lag behind an ever-changing media landscape, presenting a huge business risk.
A political or prominent connection appears anywhere in global media: an appointment, an association, an allegation.
A dedicated Watchlist category automatically scans thousands of sources on the web for political or prominent connections.
The connection is searchable in your screening within 12 hours of the news break, not weeks later.
Matching a name is the easy part. These are the controls that decide how quickly a PEP hit is understood, actioned and evidenced.
How the screening is tuned and run.
Catching changes as they happen.
Proving what you did, and when.
Screen with confidence, and prove it with a full audit trail.