What is a Politically Exposed PEP?

A Politically Exposed Person (PEP) is defined as an individual who has been entrusted with a prominent public role through which they are able to exercise influence and control.

Why are PEPs important?

Due to a PEP’s position and influence, it is acknowledged that they are potentially able to abuse their position for the purpose of committing money laundering and terrorist financing related offences. Previous case studies and analysis has shown that a PEP is more likely to engage in bribery and/or corruption.

Anti Money Laundering (AML) procedures should seek to identify a PEP where applicable and carryout enhanced due diligence for the duration of a business relationship.

What steps should be taken with PEPs?

From an Anti Money Laundering perspective additional care must first be taken to identify a PEP. When entering into a business relationship it is important to cross-check the individual against a recognised PEP database.

MLVerify provides a free PEP tool to all registered users, including automated on-going checks.

It is important not to stigmatise a PEP, but rather to understand the relationship and carryout enhanced due diligence and to monitor their activity for suspicious behaviour. These measures are preventative and not criminal in nature.

PEP Search

We provide a free PEP search tool that you can use within your account, found under Tools menu. This dataset is extracted and updated from a number of sources covering numerous countries.

When entering clients on the MLVerify platform we will automatically cross-check the individuals for PEP and Sanction matches.

This can be enabled and disabled in the KYC Templates section of your settings.

How do I know if someone’s a match?

Anyone that matched using the free PEP checker will show as a possible match. This will be either under the client name, or under the associated person, depending on who/what has matched:

Simply click on the magnify glass to view the details it’s matched against, or click the ‘x’ to dismiss the notification. A note is then made in the event log for this.

Check Sources

The data checked by this tool includes:

• CIA World Leaders
• Parliament
• Senate / House of Representatives
• Executive Positions (US)