World-Check

World-Check created and maintains a database of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and heightened risk individuals and organisations. Reported by the company to serve more than 3800 institutions in 162 countries, including 49 of the world’s 50 top banks, World-Check's risk products and services are used to identify and manage financial, compliance and reputational risks.

World-Check provides its risk intelligence to banks, building societies, lending, leasing and hire purchase companies, credit unions, asset management companies, foreign exchange dealers, stored value card issuers, remittance dealers, life insurers, financial planners, custodial service companies, cash couriers and securities and precious gem dealers, as well as gambling, gaming and sports betting operators. In addition World-Check claims that its services are in use by over 200 government agencies(immigration, security, intelligence, and international bodies including the United Nations.

Organisations use World-Check's products and services to better understand the individuals and organisations they do business with. The company's intelligence helps mitigate risk during processes such as new account opening, regular account review and the automated batch-screening of electronic transactions. World-Check products such as IntegraScreen reports for due diligence and Country-Check for assessing geographic risk complement their risk intelligence and automated screening services.

World-Check's proprietary database and tools are also used to support financial compliance and risk screening procedures. Some of its primary uses relate to Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance, Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT), Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, PEP risk management, customer due diligence, fraud prevention, government intelligence and other identity authentication, background screening and risk-prevention practices.

Research Coverage

World-Check’s research team monitors emerging risks in more than 50 languages, covering over 240 countries and territories worldwide. Multilingual researchers profile individuals and companies the international financial community deem to warrant enhanced scrutiny, as well as occurrences of fraud, corruption, terrorism, money laundering, narcotics trafficking and many other types of financial crime.The open-source research methodology (OSINT) is used.

The World-Check database includes profiles of high-risk and 'potential' heightened-risk individuals and entities, and their associates, from more than 240 countries and territories. Its research department correlates every known sanction and embargo list from around the world, including lists such as OFAC, UK HMT, EU, OSFI, FATF and the Australian DFAT. Debarred and banned parties are profiled as well.

Controversy

In 2002, World-Check made false claims about its capabilities by stating that it had the names of 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers in its database, however these entires were created on September 14, 2001.

In 2004, the company issued a press release claiming that its product was in use by the US Government. The New York Times published a story covering the claim, and the US Government subsequently published an article refuting the claims.

ICE spokesman Dean Boyd went into further detail in an interview with journalist Lucy Komisar about the New York Times article. Boyd denied that the agency was actively "experimenting" with World-Check, as The Times article suggested, adding: "I'm shocked and very upset with the New York Times. … I felt the story grossly misrepresented our position."

About World-Check

World-Check is registered in London but its CEO resides in Wisconsin, USA and its back-office functions are carried out in South Africa. The company was originally founded in 2000 by David Leppan to address the risk mitigation requirements of the Swiss banking community. It recently received a large strategic capital investment from Spectrum Equity. During 2008, World-Check launched Country-Check, a risk index providing rankings for over 240 countries and territories worldwide. Powered by a statistical model, Country-Check aggregates more than 160 reputable information sources across political, financial and criminal factors, providing a holistic perspective on country risk. For more information, visit www.country-check.com.

World-Check also acquired IntegraScreen, a Hong Kong-based provider of due diligence reporting services, during early 2009.

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