Sanctions Testing App

Testing a screening system is a complex process that requires test data selection and preparation, data formatting, test execution, results matching and test results evaluation.

We at PwC have taken our rich experience with sanctions testing and built an easy to use Sanctions Testing App that accelerates the testing process. We use this web-based App on client engagements, and also offer it to our clients as a service, so they can use it to test their screening system whenever they want.

How do I know that my sanctions screening filter is working correctly?

Financial institutions need to understand their sanctions screening filter performance in order to identify the level of risk that they face.

Ability to continuously test the filter on real sanctioned names gives them the understanding on their risk and exposure.

Test results allow the institution to perform filter optimization to increase its operational and screening effectiveness while still understanding the impact of the changes on filter’s ability to stop sanctioned terms.

Our approach

1Design your own test case that includes all the relevant lists, entity types and fuzzy algorithms

2Generate test data containing sanctioned terms in required transaction and customer formats

3Process the test data through your sanctions filter and upload the screening results to the app

4Understand the performance of you filter and it’s KPIs through multiple dimensions

5Take actions on identified issues and retest the filter to validate the impact

Using our App provides you with a controlled environment and process to help you streamline your sanctions testing. You can rerun your predefined test cases, refresh them with the latest sanctioned data and review and compare your test results.

Experience the app

Through the use of our tool, we were able to bring value by identifying many different problems that occurred in the tested sanctions screening system, such as:

List Management issues where the lists were not being updated correctly or an incremental update was missed;
Very high effectiveness in exact matching, but very poor performance on even the slightest derivation of the sanctioned name;

Improper configuration of screening formats where fields were screened only for individual names whereas entity names could appear in those fields as well;
Issues in the screening of names that contained special characters such as apostrophes or plus signs, or names containing more than five words.