Dow Jones Risk and Compliance

Since 1982, Dow Jones has made it its mission to ensure that high-quality and well-maintained data powers its screening engine, especially when it comes to workflows related to AML and counter-terrorism financing.

With Dow Jones, you get comprehensive risk screening including PEP sanctions, high-risk industries, enhanced due diligence reports, and ongoing monitoring to ensure your data is always up to date.

Dow Jones Pros:

• Full compliance suite: from due diligence to AML and financial crime compliance
• Global provider: you will get risk management and regulatory compliance that fit every market worldwide

Dow Jones Cons:

• Not as much data as competitors: some users report false positives and missing information compared with similarly priced competitors.

Dow Jones Pricing:

• You need to contact them for pricing.

Choose Dow Jones if:

• You are an enterprise client working in various, highly regulated markets.

Feedzai – Fight Financial Crime With AI

A market leader in reducing financial crime for FIs, fintechs, processors and merchants, Feedzai supports all the features you need to reduce fraud and to comply with AML requirements.

You can deploy a full fraud management and reporting platform, as well as standard and self-service rules and scenarios designed specifically for AML checks. Feedzai lets you include 3rd party integrations, as well as pre-built SAR filings to accelerate your reporting to the right agencies.   

Feedzai Pros:

• Anti-fraud and compliance all in-one: you can use their platform to mitigate risk in many forms.
• Financial institution specialists: Feedzai has positioned itself as the risk management solution for numerous retail, issuing and acquiring banks.

Feedzai Cons:

• Powerful yet complex: Feedzai does a lot, but that means you have to learn a lot too. It can be overwhelming for smaller teams.
• At the pricier end of the spectrum: as Tier 1 financial institutions are key Feedzai customers, the contracts can be prohibitive for less established companies.

Feedzai Pricing:

• You need to get in touch with the sales team to get started.

Choose Feedzai if:

• You are a financial institution with complex risk management and AML needs.

HM Treasury – Official UK and EU Sanctions Lists

In the UK, AML sanctions lists are regulated by OFSI, The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, a division of HM Treasury (a.k.a HMT). The good news is that you can check their list to ensure AML compliance with regard to the UK’s domestic counter-terrorism regime policy. Also worth noting: it includes lists from the United Nations and the EU.

At the time of writing, there are 26 HMT financial sanctions regimes, and you should do your best to ensure you do not make business deals with them – lest you want to pay fines up to £1M (or 50% of the breach). 

HMT Pros:

• Free to check.

HMT Cons:

• You need to check manually.

HMT Pricing:

It’s completely free to browse the list yourself here.

iComply – Seamless KYC Experience

iComply, which also goes by the name iComplyKYC, is a digital compliance administrator designed to reduce AML spend, accelerate processing and lower data privacy risk. 

Integration is via KYC portals, which are JavaScript code snippets you can add to any website or mobile app. All the data is managed via dashboards, and you can manage your KYC or AML workflows to adapt them to your jurisdiction. 

When it comes to AML screening, you can check the data against 150M data sources, including sanctions and watchlists, PEP and adverse media. 

iComply Pros:

• Easy integration: you can use their APIs or a JavaScript snippet to get started.
• Adverse media checks: keep up-to-date information about users based on what the news says about them.
• Fitness and Probity checks: iComply isn’t just for checking users. You can also use their Fitness and Probity tool to ensure that individuals in key and customer positions are competent, honest and financially sound.

iComply Cons:

• Complex pricing model: there is a pricing calculator on the iComply site, which shows how the cost will vary depending on the data you import and export.

iComply Pricing:

• Even though they do offer a pricing calculator, you still need to get in touch with the sales team to get a quote.

Choose iComply if:

• You like the idea of integrating a KYC / AML portal via JavaScript.

MemberCheck – Partners with Acuris Risk Intelligence

Acuris Risk Intelligence is one of the world’s largest intelligence databases, and one of the top suppliers of PEP, AML and sanctions data. So it would make sense that they would develop an AML-specific solution, which is exactly how their partnership with MemberCheck came to be.

How do you make use of that database? Well, MemberCheck is cloud-based and you can use it either via a batch update or via API calls. There are a handful of user roles that allow you to scan members of your organization or customer lists against the database to know if they appear on selected watchlists.

MemberCheck Pros:

• Large proprietary database: at least 1.4 million profiles of senior PEPs and 1.2 million high-profile people.
• Part of the Acuris Risk Intelligence ecosystem: if you get started with their AML product, you could also be interested in their third-party risk and cybersecurity tools.

MemberCheck Cons:

• No proper GUI: you can use the REST APIs or the website, but even the latter is simply an old-fashioned form where you can upload your data.
• No transaction monitoring: MemberCheck focuses on the identity part of AML only, not the transaction part.

MemberCheck Pricing:

• Available on request only.

Choose MemberCheck if:

• You need to focus on PEP and high-profile people only. 

OFAC – From the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control

OFAC, a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, ensures organizations are not conducting business with people or entities located in sanctioned or embargoed countries. 

Failing to comply with OFAC sanctions checks could expose your organization to fines and penalties – including convictions and jail time.

OFAC Pros:

• Free and openly available

OFAC Cons:

• No official software, so checks need to be done manually

OFAC Pricing:

It’s free. You can search it here.

Ondato – White Label KYC Checks

Ondato is an experts in photo and live video identity verification, which overlaps with data monitoring, screening, risk scoring, due diligence and case management. On paper, that’s everything you need to mitigate risk and improve KYC and AML compliance.

How it works is rather impressive, as the whole onboarding process takes care of document verification, personal ID checks and, of course, PEP and sanctions check at the same time. Best of all, you can deploy Ondato seamlessly as your own portal thanks to their white label option.

Ondato Pros:

• Full KYC process for onboarding: check IDs, verify documents, and get AML verification at the same time.
• White label solution: deploy Ondato without mentioning their brand name for a seamless onboarding process.

Ondato Cons:

• Opaque pricing: while you can get a free trial of Ondato, it’s unclear how much you’ll need to pay.

Ondato Pricing:

• See above.

Choose Ondato if:

• You want a full KYC and AML solution with your own branding.

Refinitiv World-Check Risk Intelligence

Refinitiv World-Check Risk Intelligence is a complete AML solution that covers all the aspects of managing compliance in regulated markets. As a world leader in AML software, the company prides itself on providing accurate, precise details of the violations or sanctions of specific individuals or entities. 

You’ll get complete PEP screening, sanctioned lists, global regulatory and law enforcement lists, negative media checks, and more – all packaged in a well-designed interface optimized for ease of use, whether you’re in Risk and Compliance, Investment Banking, or Asset Management.

Refinitiv Pros:

• Complete AML and KYC tools: ensure you have all the right tools at your disposal 
• Ease of use: Refinitiv is a well-designed product, ideal for risk managers and compliance officers who need an upgrade from the old spreadsheets. 

Refinitiv Cons:

• Opaque pricing: it’s hard to know exactly how effective Refinitiv is unless you jump through the hoops o multiple demo calls and sales presentations.

Refinitiv Pricing:

• Available by contacting the sales team.

Choose Refinitiv if:

• You are in wealth management or finance, trading, or investment banking.

SumSub – Regtech and Legal Advice

SumSub is designed to help you enhance your risk mitigation strategy – especially when it comes to observing compliance guidelines. To do so, the company relies on powerful tools to check databases along with 5M articles in 200 countries for adverse media coverage. 

Their key clients include Hyundai, BlaBlaCar and Flippa, amongst others. As for features, it offers all the document verification, watchlists, PEPs and adverse media checks you need. Their unique selling point is probably that they combine it with legal advice, provided by their team of fintech, regtech and compliance experts.

SumSub Pros:

• Compliance consultancy: SumSub is one of the rare companies on this list that offers legal advice as well as the tools to implement better compliance.
• Transparent pricing: you get a free trial and clear pricing based on the number of verifications you need.
  
• Large market coverage: SumSub checks 6,500 document types in 200 countries, so you can deploy it for international markets.

SumSub Cons:

• Extra costs depending on verifications: verifying a phone number costs extra, address verification too, which can quickly add up if you need a full user profiling.

SumSub Pricing:

• Starts at $1.56 per verification with the basic plan, but you need the Compliance plan for AML tools ($2.08 per verification). It goes up to $2.27 for companies in high-risk industries.   

Choose SumSub if:

• You need AML and KYC tools with legal advice too.

Token of Trust – AML, KYC- and Background Screening

Token of Trust aims to provide a turnkey solution to improve compliance relating to AML and KYC. It also doubles as a powerful identity verification tool and offers background screening information for manual reviews. 

While the company is headquartered in the US, many reviewers commented on how well the solution worked for compliance in other markets, especially the UK and EU. In terms of features, you’ll get age verification along with PEP and sanctions cross-checks, and all the tools you need to meet complete customer due diligence requirements. 

Token of Trust Pros:

• Global compliance: comply with FATF, EU 5AMLD, and other directives.

• ID scanning and proofing: you can verify user identities to ensure they really exist too.
  
• Document verification: use Token of Trust to allow users to upload ID documents and check them against global databases.

Token of Trust Cons:

• Not as turnkey as advertised: while Token of Trust allows you to get all the features you need for AML and KYC, the integration can be lengthy depending on your use case.

Token of Trust Pricing:

• Not available online.

Choose Token of Trust if:

• You need a turnkey solution to get started with AML and KYC in a new market. 

Conclusion: Finding the Best AML Tool

There is no shortage of third-party options for companies who want to improve their compliance process. Hopefully this list will be a good primer on the topic as it covers a wide range of solutions, from those dedicated to helping financial institutions to more casual options.

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

Who needs AML software?

Historically, only financial institutions needed to check their users against anti-money laundering lists. However, there are increasing government regulations related to AML in real estate, iGaming, fintechs and crypto trading, amongst other verticals.

How does AML software work?

AML software automatically checks user data against specific watchlists. That includes people who live in sanctioned countries, politically exposed persons (PEPs) and people with poor online reputations (adverse media). The software also needs to check for transactions, especially high-volume ones, so that you may flag and review them manually.

What features to look for in AML software?

Your AML software should be able to verify documents, monitor transactions, and check user data against specific watchlists. You should also be able to include a whitelist to allow specific users. 

How much does AML software cost?

All AML software companies have different pricing based on the number of checks you need to perform. You should also consider whether the integration is included in the price.