Global PEP database, RCAs included
240+ jurisdictions, sourced from primary government and parliamentary registers, refreshed continuously.
PEP screening
PEP screening software for banks, fintechs and CASPs.
Identify every Politically Exposed Person, RCA and status change without slowing onboarding. ComplianceSuite covers 240+ jurisdictions, applies tiered Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) workflows aligned to FATF Recommendation 12 and the EU AMLR, and surfaces explainable hits with category, role, dates and source links — so analysts decide in seconds, not days.
- 6M+ PEP records, RCAs included
- <5% false-positive rate on retail books
- Daily re-screening of the entire book
- Unified with sanctions and adverse media
Definition
What is a Politically Exposed Person (PEP)?
A Politically Exposed Person is an individual who is, or has been, entrusted with a prominent public function — such as a head of state, senior politician, senior government official, senior judicial or military officer, senior executive of a state-owned enterprise, or senior official of an international organisation. The definition originates in the FATF Recommendations and is written into national law across the EU, UK, US, Singapore, UAE and 60+ other regimes.
PEPs are not, by definition, criminals. They are screened because their positions create higher inherent risk of bribery, corruption, misappropriation of public funds and the laundering of the proceeds. Under EU Regulation 2024/1624 (the AMLR), obliged entities must apply Enhanced Due Diligence — including senior-management approval, documented source of wealth and source of funds, and continuous monitoring — to every PEP, RCA and international-organisation PEP.
For a broader primer, see our guide to anti-money laundering and the AML glossary.
Capabilities
What's included.
Tiered EDD workflows
Auto-route Tier 1 PEPs to senior compliance, Tier 2 to standard EDD, with source-of-funds evidence capture built in.
Status-change alerts
Customer becomes a PEP after onboarding? Loses status? Gets a new role? You're notified the same day.
Explainable hits
Every PEP match shows category, jurisdiction, role, dates and source links — no black box.
Risk-based thresholds
Configure domestic vs foreign treatment, RCA depth and de-PEPing windows per regulator.
Combined with sanctions and adverse media
One screening call returns PEP, sanctions and adverse media hits — no orchestration on your side.
PEP categories we cover.
Foreign PEPs
Heads of state, government ministers, deputy ministers, senior civil servants, senior judiciary, central bank governors, senior military officers, ambassadors and consuls, senior political-party officials.
Domestic PEPs
Equivalent roles within the customer's own jurisdiction. Risk-based under FATF and UK MLR 2017; mandatory EDD under EU AMLR (Reg. 2024/1624) with senior-management approval.
International organisation PEPs
Directors, deputy directors and board members of the UN, IMF, World Bank, EU institutions, ECB, NATO, WTO, IAEA, ICC and equivalent bodies.
Relatives & Close Associates (RCAs)
Spouses and equivalents, parents, children and their spouses, siblings, known business partners, joint beneficial owners and any individual known to hold assets for the benefit of a PEP.
State-owned enterprises (SOEs)
Senior executives and board members of SOEs above the materiality threshold set by each regulator — often flagged when the state holding exceeds 25%.
Former PEPs (de-PEPing)
Individuals who left a qualifying role in the last 12–24 months (regulator-specific). Continued flag on high-residual-influence individuals.
How it works
Four steps from onboarding to continuous monitoring.
1. Screen at onboarding
Single API call resolves the customer name (plus DOB, nationality, secondary identifiers) against 6M+ PEP records and 1,500+ sanctions lists in <400 ms.
2. Auto-classify tier
Tier 1 (heads of state, ministers) → senior-compliance queue. Tier 2 (senior officials, judges) → standard EDD. Tier 3 (RCAs) → analyst review with linked-PEP context.
3. Capture EDD evidence
Source-of-funds, source-of-wealth, purpose of relationship and senior-management sign-off are captured in the case file — auditable end-to-end.
4. Monitor continuously
Daily re-screening of the entire book. Same-day alert on new PEP status, role change, de-PEPing, sanctions listing or adverse-media hit.
Example
What a real screening decision looks like.
Three sample hits from a single onboarding batch and the tier, action and evidence ComplianceSuite requires for each.
| Tier | Hit | Required action |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — Senior Foreign PEP | Finance Minister, Republic of X | Mandatory EDD, senior-management approval, source-of-wealth documentation, quarterly review. |
| Tier 2 — Senior Judiciary | Supreme Court Justice, Country Y | EDD, source-of-funds evidence, annual review. |
| Tier 3 — RCA of Domestic PEP | Spouse of sitting Member of Parliament | Risk-based EDD under FCA / EU AMLR; documented rationale if standard due diligence retained. |
Every hit links out to the primary source (parliamentary register, government appointment record, court filing), the exact matched fields (name, DOB, nationality) and the confidence score — so audit and second-line review can trace every decision.
Regulatory coverage
PEP obligations across major regimes.
ComplianceSuite is configured out-of-the-box for the following regimes. Rules-engine overlays let you tune thresholds, tiering and de-PEPing windows per jurisdiction.
| Regime | Scope | PEP requirement |
|---|---|---|
| FATF Recommendation 12 | Global standard | Risk-based EDD on foreign PEPs; enhanced measures on domestic and international-org PEPs when higher risk. RCAs in scope. |
| EU AMLR (Regulation 2024/1624) | EU 27 | Mandatory EDD on all PEP categories including domestic; 12-month minimum de-PEPing window; RCAs treated as PEPs. |
| UK MLR 2017 (as amended) | United Kingdom | EDD on foreign PEPs; domestic PEPs treated risk-based per FCA guidance (FG17/6). 12-month de-PEPing window. |
| FinCEN CDD Rule | United States | No formal PEP designation but 'senior foreign political figures' require EDD under 31 CFR 1010.605; OCC and FDIC expect PEP screening as part of BSA/AML programme. |
| MAS Notice 626 | Singapore | EDD on all foreign PEPs and domestic/international-org PEPs assessed as higher risk. Senior-management approval required. |
| Wolfsberg Group Guidance | Industry standard | PEP identification at onboarding and periodically; three-tier PEP classification; documented source-of-wealth and source-of-funds. |
Working in a specific market? See our jurisdiction pages for Europe, Middle East, North America and Cyprus.
Match quality
Cut PEP false positives from 30% to under 5%.
Naïve name matching flags every "John Smith" as a possible PEP. ComplianceSuite combines phonetic and edit-distance scoring with jurisdiction, date-of-birth, transliteration (Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese) and secondary-identifier matching to bring the false-positive rate below 5% on typical retail books.
- Deterministic + probabilistic matching — Levenshtein, Jaro-Winkler, phonetic (Soundex, Metaphone) with configurable thresholds.
- Native transliteration — ICU-standard Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek and Thai romanisation.
- Auto-dedup on aliases — spelling variants of the same PEP collapse into one case, not five.
- Analyst-tuned rules — the platform learns from your dispositions to auto-clear repeat false positives.
Benchmark
4.2%
Average PEP false-positive rate across ComplianceSuite tier-1 bank customers, measured on 1.2M screening decisions (2025).
<400ms
Median screening latency (p50).
6M+
PEP + RCA records refreshed daily.
Frequently asked questions.
What is PEP screening?
PEP (Politically Exposed Person) screening identifies customers, UBOs and counterparties who hold or have held prominent public functions — and their close associates and family members (RCAs) — so regulated firms can apply Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD).
What are the PEP categories?
Foreign PEPs, domestic PEPs, international-organisation PEPs, plus Relatives and Close Associates (RCAs). Most regimes (FATF, EU AMLR) require EDD on all categories; some apply a risk-based approach to domestic PEPs.
How long does someone stay a PEP after leaving office?
FATF guidance recommends a risk-based de-PEPing window, typically 12–24 months after leaving office, but high-residual-influence individuals may stay flagged indefinitely. ComplianceSuite tracks status changes automatically.
Do you cover RCAs (Relatives and Close Associates)?
Yes. Our PEP data includes spouses, parents, children, siblings, business associates and known beneficiaries, refreshed continuously from primary sources in 240+ jurisdictions.
How does PEP screening integrate with onboarding?
Single API call returns PEP status, category, jurisdiction, role, dates in office and RCA links. Drop it into your KYC flow alongside sanctions and adverse media screening for a unified hit list.
What is the difference between a PEP and a sanctioned person?
A PEP is not, by itself, a criminal designation — it flags a person whose public role creates a higher risk of bribery, corruption or misuse of funds and therefore warrants Enhanced Due Diligence. A sanctioned person appears on an OFAC, UN, EU or UK financial-sanctions list and triggers an asset freeze or transaction prohibition. ComplianceSuite runs PEP, sanctions and adverse media in a single screening call so analysts see the full risk picture in one hit list.
How often should PEP screening be re-run?
Continuously. FATF Recommendation 12 and EU AMLR require ongoing monitoring, not just onboarding checks. ComplianceSuite re-screens the entire book against the daily-refreshed PEP database and alerts you the same day a customer becomes, or ceases to be, a PEP.
What is a false positive rate for PEP screening?
Naïve name matching typically produces 15–40% false positives on common names. ComplianceSuite applies jurisdiction, date-of-birth, transliteration and secondary-identifier matching to bring the rate below 5% on typical retail books — measured on a benchmark of 1M+ screening decisions.
Does PEP screening apply to UBOs and directors, not just the customer?
Yes. Under FATF Recommendation 10 and the EU AMLR, obliged entities must identify and screen the beneficial owners of legal-entity customers. ComplianceSuite's KYB module resolves the ownership tree and runs each UBO through PEP, sanctions and adverse media automatically.
Test it on your real customer data.
We'll run your sample through PEP, sanctions and adverse media in one call and walk you through every hit.