How PayCenter Strengthened PEP and Sanctions Screening Across Its Payment Platform with SEON

About PayCenter

PayCenter is a licensed Electronic Money Institution regulated by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). The company provides payment processing and card services, operating under strict European regulatory requirements for anti-money laundering and customer due diligence.

The Challenge

PayCenter was already running PEP and sanctions checks through its core banking system provider, but the screening lists weren’t comprehensive enough. As regulatory expectations around politically exposed persons tightened in Germany, particularly the requirement to perform not just initial checks but regular ongoing reviews, the gaps became harder to manage.

The issue wasn’t just catching PEPs at sign-up. Regulators increasingly expected documented management approval for flagged individuals, ongoing monitoring at set intervals and a clear audit trail showing the process was followed. That meant the screening tool needed to integrate directly into PayCenter’s existing IT systems, not sit alongside them as a manual step.

PayCenter’s existing setup couldn’t support that level of integration. The team needed a solution with broader data coverage, reliable API access and the ability to fit into their backoffice infrastructure without requiring a separate workflow.

What changed?

Broader screening coverage

SEON gave PayCenter access to a wider range of data sources for PEP and sanctions screening than their previous provider offered. By consolidating multiple global and regional watchlists into a single platform, it reduced gaps in coverage and gave the compliance team a more complete view of customer risk. The lists were more extensive, which meant fewer gaps in coverage and more confidence that flagged individuals were being identified consistently.

Built into the existing workflow

Rather than running as a standalone tool, SEON integrated directly into PayCenter’s backoffice infrastructure through its API. PEP checks now run automatically at two points: during onboarding after identity verification is complete, and at regular intervals for existing customers. When a check returns a positive flag, it routes to the KYC team for manual review. Customers can also confirm or reject their PEP status, which has helped reduce false positives.

For ongoing monitoring of confirmed PEPs, the team uses SEON’s web interface to track status changes and maintain the documentation regulators expect. The automation has reduced manual workload and allowed the compliance team to spend more time on genuinely higher-risk cases.

Stable and reliable

PayCenter recognized the stability of SEON’s API. Since going live, there have been no availability issues, and data quality has been consistently strong. For a regulated institution where screening checks are mandatory and time-sensitive, reliability matters.

What’s Next

PayCenter is planning to expand its use of SEON into transaction monitoring across two areas.

The first is SEPA Instant payments. European regulations and scheme rules require fraud checks within very tight processing windows for instant transfers. PayCenter plans to use SEON’s API to run those checks in real time during the processing of payment messages, where both speed and accuracy are critical.

The second is 3D Secure authentication. During the online checkout process, merchants send customer information as part of identity verification. PayCenter sees an opportunity to use SEON to analyze signals like IP addresses and phone numbers at that step, adding a layer of risk assessment to the authentication process before a transaction is approved.

Conclusion

PayCenter came to SEON to solve a specific regulatory problem: better PEP and sanctions screening with deeper integration into their existing systems. What they found was a platform stable enough to build on and flexible enough to grow with them. As they move into real-time transaction monitoring for instant payments and checkout authentication, SEON is becoming a broader part of how PayCenter manages risk across its operations.