World Check Risk Intelligence: The Definitive Guide
This is the most comprehensive guide on the web about World Check Risk Intelligence.
The best part? I will show you exactly how the database works and what the lists are, through a series of unpublished screenshots of the customer area.
If you want to find out how to unsubscribe from World Check and how banks use it to combat financial crimes, you will love this guide.
Well, let’s get started.
Do you want to check immediately if your name is on the World Check list?
Contact the ReputationUP team now for an immediate verification.
Discretion, speed and guarantee of success are our best qualities.
About ReputationUP
Led by our CEO and Founder Andrea Baggio and Colombian partner Juan Ricardo Palacio, today ReputationUP is an intelligence company that deals (also) with government services and political campaigns at the highest levels.
What you are about to read is a guide written by international experts.
Now make yourself comfortable and navigate through the chapters.
Content index
What is World Check?
WorldCheck is a huge database, a sort of digital database with all your personal data.
Banks around the world use it as a risk intelligence and risk management tool.
Objective: to measure the financial reputation of an individual or a company.
Are your name or brand on the World Check lists?
Bad: you cannot open an account or have access to credit.
The Story
The true story of World Check, the one that no one has (yet) told you, revolves around 3 main protagonists and really has an incredible value.
Let’s see in detail who designed, developed and finally purchased World Check.
1) David Leppan
David Leppan is the South African entrepreneur who came up with the idea of creating World Check.
In fact, he is one of the most powerful men in the world, since he knows the secrets of other influential and wealthy men.
Trivia: live in this Ibiza house.
During an interview with the New York Times, Leppan revealed the background that led to the birth of World Check:
I created World-Check with my ex-wife in 2000.
I was 24 years old, I worked for Thomson Financial and I was sales manager in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Austria.
At the time, there was a Swiss banking scandal over money transfers by the Nigerian general Sani Abacha.
I was on a business trip and several major banks began to ask us if Thomson Financial had an early warning database to help them understand the financial risks associated with their clients around the world.
At that moment I saw an opportunity and within a few months I created our company with the online database.
2) Nikolaus Kimla
If David Leppan was the mastermind, Nikolaus Kimla was the arm of World Check.
Through his company Uptime ITechnology has developed the entire IT platform that supports the WorldCheck database.
Austrian by birth, Kimla still deals (among other things) with programming and updating ever better versions of the database.
3) Thomson Reuters
When a great idea is supported by a computer structure that works wonderfully, the market value skyrockets.
Especially considering that today data is worth more than money.
Outcome: On May 17, 2011, media giant Thomson Reuters (TRI) announced the purchase of World-Check, a London-based provider of information on financial crime and corruption prevention for businesses.
Today the Financial and Risk division of Thomson Reuters – which includes World Check – is called Refinitiv.
The new company is controlled by the Blackstone Group, which in October 2018 acquired 55% of Thomson Reuters F&R for a record $ 20 billion.
We are talking about the largest digital financial intelligence database in the world.
The Databank
Immediately after the birth of World Check (in 2000), the September 11 attacks overwhelmed and diverted the course of global history.
From that day the priority of each bank and financial institution on the face of the Earth was to prevent financial risks and reputational crises on money movements related to Islamic terrorism.
And guess who they were talking to?
That’s right: at World Check, which at the time was the standard for anti-money laundering security.
It could not be otherwise, given that the company’s main consultant was Kenneth Rijock, better known as The Laundry Man, an international (repentant) money laundering guru.
Over the years the World Check Thomson Reuters database has become the main due diligence provider in terms of KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and PEP (Politically Exposed Persons), regarding individuals and entities with high financial risk.
Banks, credit and insurance financial institutions, government and intelligence services use WorldCheck’s filing and database to target crimes related to terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, arms and human trafficking.
To satisfy even the needs of smaller institutions and smaller companies – which do not have a team or the appropriate know-how for a manual check – since 2005 World Check has used software called Pythagoras, which automatically filters the names stored in the database is based on a series of pre-set parameters.
Just to give an example, it is a software also used by the Mediobanca Group.
CHAPTER 2:
The World Check database
How the World Check database works
The operation of the World Check database is quite simple.
The system sucks data and news related to a possible financial risk from sources it deems reliable, on entities and individuals.
It then classifies these entities and individuals by profiles, based on the associated crime category, and places the profiles on the notorious lists.
In this mechanism, which may seem perfect, there is a basic flaw: often the sources considered authoritative are actually garbage.
Access and login to the customer area
To log in to the World-Check customer area just connect to the official website and enter your credentials.
Obviously access to the database goes through a rigorous verification process and the mandatory signing of a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Once inside, you will be faced with the largest mass cataloging on the planet.
Scrolling through the lists, you will find both real and alleged criminals who ended up in there by mistake.
Do you want to check if your name is on the World Check list?
To check immediately, contact the ReputationUP team.
We will answer you with discretion, speed and guarantee of success.
What are the filing criteria
All politically exposed individuals or entities who carry out suspicious transactions, within the limits of anti-money laundering legislation, end up in the WorldCheck database.
The data are extrapolated from over 100,000 respectable public sources (“credible and reputable open source information“) and are inserted in the central database managed by Refinitiv.
More specifically, the screening process analyzes and catalogs the so-called “Public Domain Data” – that is, personal information available to the public and generally on the Internet – in 240 countries worldwide and 65 languages.
What are the sources of World Check?
The “respectable sources” from which World Check captures your data are:
- Penalties or checklists
- Websites of judicial, regulatory or other authorities
- Political websites (parliamentarians, local government or individual politicians) and publications
- Reliable media and publications
- Sources of information made public by the person himself (website, blog or social media)
Welcome to the fantastic digital world, where there is a trace of whatever you do. Where the third-generation mafia offspring get caught for a selfie by the yacht.
There is always someone watching you on the internet.
What is a World Check report and what data it contains
By World Check report we mean a personal or business card, present in the database, which is presented in a highly structured format and contains the following data:
- Category
- Subcategory
- Creation date
- Social Security Number
- First Name
- Surname
- Alias
- Names
- Alternative Aliases
- Date of Birth
- Certificate of Death
- Further Information
- Passport
- Identity Card
- Company Numbers
- Source References
- Citizenship
Here is an example of a personal card on World Check.
A World Check report like this is drawn up from this tab.
How much does a World Check report cost
Evaluating how much a World Check report costs is not possible, given that the variables involved are many and different from each other, it is necessary to consider case by case.
It is necessary to evaluate case by case: it is not like buying apples at the supermarket, which cost a lot per kilo.
I can tell you, however, that thanks to ReputationUP you will be able to know for sure if your name or company is listed in some list.
Check if your name is on the World Check list
Contact the ReputationUP team now and ask for more information.
Discretion, speed and guarantee of success are our best qualities.
CHAPTER 3:
The World Check categories
In this chapter I will tell you what the World Check categories are and, where possible, how many profiles each category contains (*).
Also I will show you how they are defined.
This step is essential to understand the concept behind the World Check lists.
* The data, indicated in brackets, may have undergone changes over time.
What are the World Check categories
Let’s see in detail all the 23 categories that make up the immense Refinitiv database.
1) Bank
This category includes:
- Shell bank
- Central banks of countries at risk
- State banks
- Banks subject to regulatory action or sanctions
- Unauthorized and / or bogus financial institutions disguised as banks
2) Blacklisted
This category includes:
- Any entity on the blacklist of internationally and / or regionally recognized control bodies (e.g. World Bank)
- Airplanes and airlines blacklisted in the EU
3) Countries
All nations reported as such by:
- World bank
- IMF
- FATF
- UN and EU (Embargo)
are considered at high risk.
4) Companies (*176,009)
The World-Check companies category covers all legal, commercial or state entities – including loose and fined entities – that are present on regulatory sites or official sanctions such as:
- OFAC
- ONU
- SEC
- UK FSA
- US FRB
5) Crime – Financial (*181,060)
This category includes any person found guilty or convicted for:
- Misappropriation
- Theft
- Fraud
- Money laundry
- Extortion
- Corruption
- Tax evasion
- Other financial, economic and property crime offenses
6) Crime – Narcotics (*130,115)
In this category you find:
- Persons found guilty or convicted of drug trafficking
- Individuals sanctioned or reported as international drug traffickers according to Kingpin Act
7) Crime – Organized (*46,003)
This category includes every person found guilty or convicted of crimes related to or related to any organized crime group (e.g. Solntsevskaya Bratva, Yakuza, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, Sinaloa Cartel and many others …).
8) Crime – War
Any person found guilty or convicted of crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes falls into this category.
9) Crime – Other (*67,606)
All persons found guilty or convicted of offenses alleged by FAFT-GAFI fall into other categories of crime.
10) Diplomatic (*66,385)
By diplomat we mean every individual who holds the position of:
- Ambassador
- Minister
- Minister-Counselor
- Attaché
- Lobbyist
- Consul general
- Honorary consulate
- Consols
11) Embargo
The Embargo category indicates all those countries or regions subject to sanctions or embargoes by international bodies such as the UN and the EU.
12) Ship Embargo
A ship ends up in this category when it has received or received the order not to sail from or not to dock at the port of the state in which it is located for reasons of embargo.
13) Individual (*928,804)
The individual category is one of the most controversial, since it often lists innocent people who do not deserve this type of media pillory.
The list includes:
- Any person accused, investigated, arrested, indicted, detained, interrogated or subjected to trial for crimes related to World-Check but not yet convicted
- Politically Exposed Persons (PEP Individual)Â
- Individual who appears in a list of law enforcement, OFAC, Interpol or is reported as Disqualified Directors
- Close relative of a PEP individual
14) Legal (*82,937)
Among the legal professionals involved in risk related activities and accused of fronde we find:
- Lawyers
- Magistrates
- Judges
- General Prosecutors
- Other PEP legal professionals
15) Military (*16,963)
This category includes high-level military personnel (PEP) and military officers (non-PEP) reported due to the risk of preventive sentencing related to the military role.
16) Organization
Among the organizations listed on World Check you will find:
- United Nations agencies or regional bodies of the European Union
- Foundations
- Religious institutions
- Financial services authority
- Security and exchange fees
- University
17) Political Individual (*450,591)
The individual political category includes:
- Any person who holds or held a political position
- Any person who has been elected to a government or PEP position
- Any politically exposed person in a country where cabinet ministers, secretaries of state and the like are appointed and not elected (e.g., Kingdom or military state)
- Every leader of a political party
18) Political Party (*5,175)
In this World Check list, every registered political party that participates in the elections or is active in a specific country appears.
19) Port and Airport
The seaports and airports reported on the Refinitiv database are those located in a country or region listed as having a financial or commercial embargo (including asset freezing), arms embargo or sanctions against them issued by an internationally recognized organization ( e.g. UN, EU).
20) Religion
Any influential religious leader, or representative of a religious organization, with political, judicial, military, financial and administrative responsibilities is likely to see his name on the World Check Religion list. To understand: there is also Pope Francis.
21) Terrorism (*76,890)
The category of terrorism includes:
- Any person or entity arrested for terrorist offenses
- Any person or entity suspected of involvement in terrorist or terrorism-related activities
- Any person or entity convicted of terrorist offenses
- Any person or entity identified as wanted nationally or internationally by OFAC, UN, INTERPOL, FBI, CIA, EUROPOL and others.
22) Trade union
Any trade union that exercises substantial political influence or pressure and regularly mobilizes a large group of people engaged in industrial unrest is listed on World Check.
23) Ship (*918)
By ship is meant any:
- Non-embargoed or non-sanctioned seagoing ship which is directly or indirectly linked to or associated with a country, region or entity subject to an embargo or sanction;
- Maritime ship of special interest which is not directly linked to or associated with an embargoed country, region or entity but which carries related information or other relevant risk information.
Check for FREE if your profile is on the World Check list
Contact the ReputationUP team and ask for more information.
Discretion, speed and guarantee of success are our best qualities.
CHAPTER 4:
The World Check lists
What are the World Check lists
Each category has a World Check list.
All World Check lists contain a list of names and acronyms of people or entities that – for the reasons explained in the previous chapter – are filed, after careful verification.
Even if the example is very risky, the most critical compare them to the lists of P2, therefore to lists of powerful figures who – in direct or indirect relationship with each other – commit crimes against the state and against property.
Particularly relevant are the World Check lists on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing.
How World Check lists work
Why can an individual or entity undergo a category change and switch from one list to another?
To answer I will give a concrete example.
Example – Individual, Political or Diplomatic Individual
If a person is accused of an offense related to World Check but is not yet convicted, he will be listed in the Individual, Political or Diplomatic Individual category (as appropriate) until the possible conviction.
After any conviction, that same person will undergo a category change and will be classified in the list of the appropriate Crime category.
If the sentence was canceled on appeal, that same person would return to the initial category.
Therefore, the discriminant of a change of category and list is the possible conviction of the person.
Please note that for the initial filing a simple charge of crime by those control bodies of which I spoke in the chapter on the categories of World Check is enough.
World Check Leak: when the lists go online
World Check Leak has been talked about every time the lists in the database have ended up online. And therefore available for download by any human being, including hackers, with a decent Internet connection.
Allow me to point out that since the Thomson Reuters financial and risk division – owner of World Check – was acquired by the Blackstone Group and changed its name to Refinitiv, there have been no more cases of leak and stolen data.
Let’s now look at the most striking and acclaimed case of World Check Leak.
The 2016 leak
How the World Check database works was understood on Thursday 28 June 2016, when Chris Vickery – an American cyber security expert – wrote a post on Reddit:
“Terrorism blacklist: I have a copy. Should it be shared? “
In a few hours the news of the World Check leak goes around the world.
Every hacker on the face of the earth sees the concrete possibility of downloading a list made up of 2.2 million people identified as “high risk”, included in the World-Check database between 17/03/2000 and 17/09/2014.
We are talking about information whose use, until then, was the exclusive prerogative of 49 of the 50 largest banks in the world, together with 300 government and intelligence agencies.
World Check Italy: the Italian names on the list
The 2016 leak also brought up a sort of World Check Italia, namely the Italian names on the list.
Some were disclosed by an article by Stefania Maurizi on Repubblica, including:
- Pope Francis
- Sergio Mattarella
- Silvio Berlusconi
- Matteo Renzi
- Beppe Grillo
- Luca Casarini
- Casa Pound
- New Brigate Rosse
- Informal Anarchist Federation
Do you want to check immediately if your name is on the World Check list?
Contact the ReputationUP team now and ask for more information.
Discretion, speed and guarantee of success are our best qualities.
CHAPTER 5:
World-Check One and financial crimes
How banks and companies use World-Check One
World Check One is a tool used by international companies, banks, financial and credit institutions to efficiently select customers, collaborators, transactions and employees and avoid potential risks.
How?
Simple: if a customer is reported as suspect by World Check to the bank, further checks will be carried out and his application may be rejected.
This process serves to ensure that customers or other members associated with the bank have never been involved in any form of money laundering, political exposure or other illegal activities.
Once the customer passes the check screens imposed by World Check, he will then be approved as a bank customer and will be able to make financial transactions.
To combat financial crimes, banks use three World Check tools.
1) Anti-Money Laundering
According to the 2021 “The Financial Cost of Fraud“, nearly 50% of global companies have experienced at least one financial crime in the past 12 months.
Aggregate total losses: $ 5.38 trillions.
To understand it, the trillion is the one that has twelve zeros and written in full becomes 5,380,000,000,000
We are talking about a figure higher than that of the entire GDP of a large European nation like Germany (GDP 2021: 3.9 trillion dollars).
Money laundering grows hand in hand with financial crimes, since stolen money – to be spent – needs to be cleaned up and washed.
Faced with a scam of such proportions, the world’s governmental institutions that deal with economics and finance certainly don’t stand by.
The AML (Anti Money Laundering) regulatory strategy is to share an ever-increasing amount of information and data to prevent financial crime.
Unfortunately, however, state bureaucracy is often slow, cumbersome and devoid of the most advanced technological tools to win the war against the bad guys.
Here comes World-Check One, the anti-money laundering solution for professionals, launched by Thomson Reuters in 2014.
The operation is relatively simple: the database collects all the data from the sources we mentioned before and – through a screening program – simplifies the search for individuals, companies and states reported, accused or convicted of money laundering.
2) Anti Terrorism
Counter-terrorism (countering the financing of terrorism) means the fight against terrorist financing, the enormous flow of money that feeds the great machine of global terror every year.
Among the illicit activities whose funds are used to finance terrorist organizations, we find:
- Drug Trafficking
- Black oil market
- Facade companies such as car and taxi rental
- Cyber Crime
Just think that ISIS in 2014, its period of maximum expansion, invoiced 50 million dollars a month only from the illegal sale of oil and boasted an annual turnover of over 2 billion dollars.
Keep in mind that almost 200 terrorist organizations recognized as such by the authorities are all self-financing by committing financial crimes and laundering dirty money.
The Italian Secret Services also wrote about the relationship between Money Laundering (money laundering) and Money Dirtying (financing for terrorism) in the magazine Gnosis, underlining that:
“According to World Bank data, in 2006, total transactions made through money transfers worldwide were $ 93 billion.
There is no doubt that, through these centers, capital travels to terrorist organizations. “
Internationally, the regulatory vademecum for the prevention and contrast of terrorist financing is the International Convention against the financing of terrorism of 8 December 1999.
Basically, if the control bodies of the United Nations and the European Union “designate” a person guilty of activities in support of countries that threaten international peace and security, the same person suffers the freezing of funds and economic resources .
And here World-Check One comes into play, as an efficient and immediate screening tool to find any traces of terrorist financing.
The database collects all data from official sources and makes them available to customers who need to read that data.
After all, are we or are we not in the era in which information is worth more than gold?
For Refinitiv this information is worth $ 6 billion, i.e. the company’s turnover in 2018.
3) Due Diligence
The expression Due Diligence derives from the Latin debita diligentia and literally means due diligence.
In the case of World-Check it concerns the process of investigation and analysis of data and information relating to any financial or economic operation.
Let’s follow a concrete example: Company X asks for a $ 300 million loan from Bank Y.
Well, Bank Y will use World-Check to fulfill due diligence obligations and identify any entities or entities that have committed financial crimes and that are connected to Company X.
Objective: to minimize any financial risk, therefore any loss of money due to a company that asks for a lot of money and then may not be able to return it.
At that point, Bank Y has all the necessary information to decide whether to grant the loan or not and to bear the financial risk of Company X.
Through the screening platform of World-Check One it is possible to create advanced due diligence reports that provide you with everything you need to know before doing business with someone.
Yes, it is true, at the beginning of the guide we briefly told who founded and developed World Check and that Thomson Reuters, acquired by the Blackstone Group, is now called Refinitiv.
Very well. But who is behind these acronyms? Who controls your data?
To understand who is behind the largest database in the world, we have adopted the best investigative strategy that has ever existed: FOLLOW THE MONEY.
What is Refinitiv
Refinitiv is the company that manages World Check today.
Born in 2018, it is the result of a joint venture between Blackstone Group LP, which holds the majority stake (55%) and Thomson Reuters, which has the minority stake (45%).
Ergo your data is in hand, with the due percentages, to Blackstone Group and Thomson Reuters.
Who controls Thomson Reuters
Let’s start with the minority share.
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a Canadian multinational listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (TRI).
Its shares are held by a number of institutional investors and mutual funds including Royal Bank of Canada, Vanguard Group, Inc., Parnassus Fund, JP Morgan ETF Tr-BetaBuilders Canada ETF and others.
President and CEO of TRI is Stephen John Hasker.
Who controls Blackstone Group
And we come to those who hold the majority stake of Refinitiv, therefore of World Check, and therefore of the data present in the database.
The Blackstone Group, L.P. it is a killer whale of world finance, with assets under management of over 457 billion dollars.
The equivalent of the GDP of three countries like Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador combined.
It has significant shares in globally recognized groups, including Hilton Worldwide, Thomson Reuters, Versace.
But who controls Blackstone Group?
The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BX) and among the owners of its shares we find institutional investors – such as Swedbank, Renaissance Investment Group, Tocqueville Asset Management L.p. – and several US funds (Income Fund of America Inc, American Balanced Fund, Growth Fund Of America Inc, American Funds Insurance Ser-Asset).
Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder is Stephen Allen Schwarzman, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, current board member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum.
Interestingly, the U.S. government also has its own representative on the BX Board: I’m talking about Kelly A Ayotte, Republican senator from New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017.
How to unsubscribe from World Check?
To fully answer this question, allow me to consider a case study – that of the Finsbury Park Mosque against Thomson Reuters – which highlighted the reputational damage suffered by those who are mistakenly added to the World-Check database.
The case of the Finsbury Park Mosque
The Finsbury Park mosque is located in North London, a short walk from the Emirates Stadium.
Inaugurated in 1993, in the presence of Prince Charles of England, in several circumstances it ended up in the eye of the media hurricane because it was suspected of financing terrorism.
On the basis of these (and other) accusations, in 2003 she was forced to close its doors for two years.
Reopening came in 2005 and today it is among the most active Islamic realities in England.
In terms of World Check, the case of the mosque becomes interesting when – it is 2014 – HSBC, one of the most important banking groups in the world, closes the bank account of Finsbury Park and prevents it from opening other accounts in other associated banks.
What had caused the blockade?
The presence of the mosque in the World Check database, used by HSBC for Customer KYC profile and due diligence in order to avoid customers who do not comply with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism regulations.
The problem is that the Finsbury Park fact sheet on World-Check was based on news prior to the reopening and rebirth of the mosque, therefore on obsolete news, no longer updated or truthful.
The mosque, supported by a reputable online company, decides to wage a long battle with Thomson Reuters to ask for the deletion of his profile from the dabatase.
Result: in 2017 the mosque wins the battle and sees its right to be forgotten and to privacy recognized.
In summary, we can say that World Check fed on harmful news that nobody had thought of removing from the web, triggering a reputational crisis with disastrous financial consequences.
That’s why, even before finding out how to unsubscribe from World Check – and in order to prevent crisis management – it is essential to remove obsolete content from the web that can damage or compromise your image.
How to unsubscribe from World-Check
The case of the mosque shows that:
We need to dry up the sources to which World-Check drinks, removing the pretext to report you on the database.
How?
Just delete those negative online links from which government and official sources feed, which then end up being news of crime according to World Check.
So, if you really want to delete your name from WorldCheck, avoid giving credit to companies that promise mirabilia and entrusted to serious and qualified professionals of the sector such as those you find in the ReputationUP team.
Do you want to check immediately if your name is on the World Check list?
Contact the ReputationUP team now and ask for more information.
Discretion, speed and guarantee of success are our best qualities.
When it is possible to unsubscribe from World-Check
According to Andrea Baggio, CEO and Founder of ReputationUP, it is possible to unsubscribe from World Check in eight out of ten cases:
“80% of the profiles on Refinitiv’s database are based on old, obsolete, harmful, defamatory and contrary to the GDPR principle in Europe and its US equivalent.”
Then you can update them or remove them entirely.
In fact, when sensitive personal data is processed without consent and without satisfying only one of the exemptions provided by the Privacy Guarantor or by the Data Protection Authority (DPA), there is a real risk that the data is processed illegally.
At this point, a company like ReputationUP takes the field, verifying:
- If your name is on the list
- If your profile is illegal
- What is the path to request the deletion or updating of the profile.
As in the case of the Finsbury Park mosque.
Based on current privacy laws, the right to be forgotten and the retention of sensitive data, you are entitled to:
- Request a complete copy of all your profile information on World Check
- Request the updating and correction of this information if you think it is incorrect or incomplete
- Request the deletion of the profile
How do I check if my name is on the list
This is the easiest and fastest part.
Fill in this form and ReputationUP will check – with speed and discretion – if your name is on the list.
You have a team of reputational and legal experts who can assist you if you want to assert your right to be forgotten, in compliance with the GDPR and according to the legal lines established by the Privacy Guarantor.
CHAPTER 8:
World Check VS Others
Did you really think that World Check was the only database that sells your data to those who request it?
In this chapter I will tell you who the major competitors of World Check are.
You will also find out how these alternative data providers classify your information and for what purposes they use it.
Dow Jones Risk & Compliance
With the exception of the Sport Intelligence tool, an ad hoc tool for those sports organizations that want to monitor risk in relation to an event, the Dow Jones Risk & Compliance works as a World-Check.
It is a business data provider and collects information through a system called Factiva, a news aggregator that analyzes over 32,000 sources – paper and online newspapers, magazines, televisions, radio broadcasts, photos, videos – in 28 languages.
We are very far from the figures of World Check (100 thousand sources, 240 countries, 64 languages).
World Compliance
WorldCompliance Online Search Tool was born under the hat of RELX plc, the British public company that first acquired Lexisnexis (legal-financial database) and then Accuity (financial reputation company).
They claim to manage a database with 1.8 million profiles, of which it is possible to have a total screening for 50 risk categories, including Foreign Officials and State Enterprises.
It is not clear or specified in detail which and how many sources WorldCompliance uses for the listing of profiles.
Ofac
Unlike the other competitors, which are private companies, the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) is a United States financial intelligence agency that applies economic and commercial sanctions to enemies of the United States, i.e. to entities and individuals who they threaten national security and foreign policy.
The most interesting aspect is that OFAC offers a public search tool called the Sanction List Search.
From the tool it is possible to download both the SDN list (Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List) and the Non-SDN list (all individuals belonging to the Palestinian Legislative Council, a sort of Palestinian Parliament).
The others
The data market is so vast that it includes dozens of competitors, not all of which deserve particular attention.
For the more curious, I recommend taking a look at the complete list of Data Providers and Screening Software published by Eric A. Sohn on MrWatchlist.com
FAQ
What is Thomson Reuters World-Check?
Thomson Reuters World-Check is an integrated risk and reputation assessment service that helps executives and shareholders make better decisions when assessing the reputation, risk and performance of companies and managers.
World-Check is built on the same Thomson Reuters data and analysis platform used by companies, governments and other organizations to understand risk and perform due diligence. This gives users access to a comprehensive and transparent assessment of a company’s reputation.
What lists are included in World-Check?
World-Check is an index of companies and people around the world. World-Check includes lists from a variety of third-party sources, such as government agencies, regulatory authorities, and private intelligence and security companies.Â
It contains data on companies, people, and organizations listed on stock exchanges, as well as those blacklisted or on the Specially Designated Nationals List. It also includes data on people, groups, and organizations associated with terrorism and other illegal activities, such as those on the Terrorist Entity List.
How do you use World-Check?
World-Check is the world’s largest and most comprehensive database of verified information about individuals and companies. It provides a verified background and history on individuals and organizations to help investors, consumers, and others make informed decisions.Â
You can access World-Check’s background and history on anyone or anything, including companies and projects. Some use World-Check as a shopping tool, while others use it as a research tool.
What is Refinitiv World-Check?
World-Check is a tool used by millions of people around the world to investigate the background and history of people they are meeting. Refinitiv World-Check is a suite of tools built by Refinitiv on top of the World-Check platform.Â
Using the Refinitiv World-Check app you can perform background searches, build a criminal record, and perform advanced searches like those for aliases, aliases in court documents, and aliases used in other languages. In this way you can identify, understand, and manage risks in your world.
How do you find out if someone is politically exposed?
If you want to find out whether someone is politically exposed, you first need to identify which of their companies or assets you’re interested in. You’ll need to research to determine if your target is a high-exposed individual. You can do this by performing a Reputation Score.
How can I verify my name or someone else's in World Check?
If you’re looking for a way to verify your name or the name of someone else in World Check, the answer is simple: you need a company like ReputationUP specialized in AML Checks and Risk Screening.
How do I remove my name from World-Check?
Please contact ReputationUP to check if your name is on the World-Check database. Then our specialists will help you through the process step-by-step.
Is World-Check reliable?
World-Check is used by banks, police forces and security services around the world, by many major corporations, including some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
Conclusions
Congratulations. Really.
If you have come this far it means that you have thoroughly enjoyed the most complete guide on the web on World Check.
I showed you:
- What is World Check
- How the database works
- What are the lists
- How to unsubscribe
- What is it for
- How to check right away if your name is on the list
The guide is divided into 9 chapters, with 32 images (including many unpublished infographics), 2 videos and several maps.
In the over 6000 words I have written for you, a basic principle has emerged very clearly.
If you want to prevent a screening system like World Check from collecting false and outdated information about you – causing you huge financial problems like closing a bank account, freezing your assets and being unable to move your money freely – take it take care of your online reputation.
And delete negative content from the web before it ends up in the WorldCheck database.
Now is the time to hear your voice
Hope you got enormous value from ‘World Check Risk Intelligence: The Ultimate Guide’.
And now I’d like to hear your opinion:
Which chapter did you read most carefully?
Do you use due diligence tools?
And if so, which ones?
In any case, let me know by writing a short comment now.
