PEP and Sanctions Checks

Check if your client is a PEP (Politically Exposed Person) or if their name is on an international sanctions watchlist.

In 2Shakes you can run a PEP and Sanctions check on a person as part of your onboarding process. This valuable check searches hundreds of international databases to see if someone is either politically exposed, has committed a criminal offence, or is sanctioned under international law.

When you carry out a 2Shakes biometric proof of identity verfication (PoI/IDV) a PEP Check is automatically run at the same time. 

Read on to find out how you can run a PEP check when you manually confirm someone’s identity (PoI/IDV) and what to do if you get a PEP hit .

PEP & Sanctions for manual IDV/PoI

You can do a PEP Check on individuals who have their IDV Method set to Manual from Client Management page. You can perform PEP Checks for individuals where PEP status is ‘not checked’. You do not require the person’s consent to carry out a PEP Check. 

Under People Status, find any individuals who have not had a PEP Check

Next, in the individual’s ID Verification tab, click Manual IDV to go to the client’s ID Details page:

The Details page consists of three sections:

  1. Identity Verified: Tick the check box to record that the verification has occurred.

  2. Sanctions/Politically Exposed Persons Check:

    • Tick the Sanctions / Politically Exposed Person (PEP) check box if you want to do a PEP and sanctions check.

      • To run an electronic PEP check enter the full name and date of birth. The middle name and gender are optional.

      • To record you have manually checked, change the radio button to option to Mark as Done.

  3. Confirm: Submit your selections to proceed.

The PEP status for the individual will change. If nothing is found it will show as Clear. Use Notes & Files to make a note of any details or upload any documents (scans or certified copies of them), if you wish.

PEP Hits

If the PEP Check returns a hit, you will see that reported for the individual. This indicates a match between at least some of the person’s data with that of a Politically Exposed Person or person on a Sanctions list.

Crucially, where a database only holds partial data (e.g. Name and Year of Birth only), a match on this partial data will still report as a hit.

Therefore it is really important to be aware that the hit may not relate to the person you are dealing with, and so it is important to take steps to confirm or rule out the hit relating to your customer. If you have a client with a PEP Hit, you can obtain the PEP Check report by contacting support@2shakes.co.nz

After investigating, if you have confirmed the individual you are dealing with is indeed a PEP follow your own Policy, Procedures and Programme, (It is normal to refer a decision on continuing to onboard the client to a Senior decision maker).

More Help

Didn’t find what you need here? You can find lots more help on our main Support Page.

Or you can contact us or email us at support@2shakes.co.nz and we can help you with what you need to know.

Thanks very much,
The 2Shakes Team