Financial crime compliance has become more difficult as sanctions lists change overnight, and PEPs shift roles. Regulators expect businesses to react in real time on top of it. Only manual reviews can no longer keep up with the scale and speed of compliance operations of today.
For fintechs and global marketplaces, AML screening isn’t limited to onboarding anymore. They need continuous monitoring that’s able to accurately detect risks without creating operational bottlenecks or overwhelming compliance teams with false positives.
Sumsub’s AML Screening combines sanctions screening, PEP checks, watchlist monitoring, and adverse media analysis into a single AI-powered compliance workflow. With it, businesses can screen individuals and entities against more than 50,000 global data sources in more than 240+ countries and territories, while automating reviews and case management from a single platform.
Why companies need an AML screening solution
Regulatory expectations have expanded from basic customer verification to requiring companies to monitor customer activity, identify suspicious behavior early, and keep audit-ready records in order to be considered compliant.
Companies can use AML screening to identify high-risk entities by checking them against various databases, which is key for detecting potential money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other kinds of violations.
The volume of alerts is one of the challenges for compliance teams, who often have to deal with thousands of alerts. Many of these turn out to be false positives caused by factors like spelling variations, incomplete data, or weak matching logic. On top of that, manual investigation slows onboarding down and increases operational costs, which creates lots of friction for legitimate users.
International companies face an additional layer of complexity. Screening systems must account for different alphabets, transliterations, and local sanctions requirements, and they also need to align with regulatory frameworks that change all the time. A compliance stack that’s fragmented like that makes this harder to manage.
That is why many companies are changing their systems to unified compliance platforms that combine the screening and monitoring features in one environment.
How to choose the right AML screening solution
An AML screening solution should help compliance teams to make their work quicker without lowering risk standards.
Coverage matters first. Companies need access to reliable databases and watchlists that are updated quickly and continuously. AML screening should also support both individuals and legal entities, and in multiple jurisdictions.
Matching accuracy matters just as much. Matching that’s overly strict can miss genuine risks, while loose matching swamps the teams with unnecessary alerts. The AML systems of today rely on AI-assisted matching and fuzzy matching logic in order to reduce false positives and still identify meaningful connections.
Automation is another factor that should be considered. Compliance teams need workflows that will categorize risks and escalate cases automatically, trigger enhanced due diligence when needed, and maintain audit trails for the regulators.
Flexibility also plays a role in making the right decision. Companies often have to set their screening rules based on their own risk appetite, jurisdictions, or business model. Sumsub is able to support this customization by offering matching levels ranging from strict to fuzzy, along with configurable screening settings and provider integrations.
Finally, AML screening should not be isolated from other elements: the most effective programs connect features from onboarding to transaction analysis into a single workflow that firms can use.
What sets Sumsub’s AML Screening apart
Sumsub combines AML screening with a broader compliance ecosystem that includes user verification, business verification, and transaction monitoring into one platform. Instead of moving alerts between disconnected tools, compliance teams can investigate and resolve cases within a single workflow.
Here are some of the features that make Sumsub’s AML Screening a top solution:
- Screening against global sanctions lists, PEP databases, watchlists, and adverse media sources in more than 240+ countries
- Curated AML screening presets, which include ready-to-use configurations that are tailored to industry needs
- Resolution rules, an engine that provides clients with tools to automate match review, so their Risk appetite can be directly translated to the Sumsub system's behavior
- AI-assisted context notes—the algorithm performs checks on names, dates, roles, media context, and other risk signals to determine a match status. It stays cautious when data is thin, and supports faster decisions while ensuring auditability
- Unified customer profiles that sync AML screening results with various data, such as fraud signals and transaction data provided, for investigations that require more context
- Ongoing monitoring that automatically re-screens individuals whenever their information or watchlists change
- Cross-product functionality with other products like transaction monitoring, KYB, and Case management
- Centralized reporting and audit logs for maintaining regulatory records, as well as simplifying internal reviews
- API-first infrastructure for integrating the AML screening solution into already-existing onboarding flows and other systems
- Bring-your-own-key (BYOK) integrations with providers like ComplyAdvantage and others
How clients benefit from Sumsub’s AML Screening
Raenest: More than 80% of fully automated verification checks
Raenest is a global financial platform that helps individuals and businesses make cross-border payments and manage multiple currencies. They needed an automated solution to quickly handle this wide range of services while ensuring accurate transactions and strong fraud detection in all markets.
With Sumsub, the company gained wider global coverage and is now able to process a greater array of document types. Raenest also implemented automated AML detection and verification flows that can be customized as needed, which granted them much better onboarding speed and helped them remain compliant with all regulations.
- Automated more than 80% of their verification checks fully, with only high-risk cases still being manual
- Improved their user approval rates by 55%
- Made onboarding time 60% faster than before
OluwaToyin Fakorede
Head of Compliance at Raenest
Sumsub’s solution solves our challenges by automating verification, reducing manual work, and speeding up onboarding. What stands out most is its accuracy, global coverage, and built-in AML Screening, which help us scale efficiently while maintaining compliance and a smooth user experience.
Rise: Less frustration with an improved user experience
Rise is a payroll and compliance Web3-using platform that allows businesses to hire, onboard, and pay teams in cash or cryptocurrency. Rise had long wait times and extensive manual checks in their work, which consistently led to errors and false positives. Because of this, they needed an AML screening solution that was robust enough to improve their efficiency and reduce numerous customer support requests.
Sumsub helped Rise make their onboarding process much smoother by helping them verify customer identities more accurately. Through Sumsub’s easy-to-use interface and various verification options, such as ID checks and AML screening, all of Rise's needs were met.
- Improved user experience through automation
- Dramatically increased their pass rates (from 10% to 94%)
- The firm could meet compliance and regulation requirements in emerging markets easily
Diana Arias
Head of Compliance at Rise
Sumsub provides secure and reliable verification services. The automated verification system is also very fast, which has helped us reduce customer wait times and improve user experience.
T23 Group: Building adaptable onboarding journeys with Sumsub
T23 Group, a firm specializing in technology-enabled transformation for financial institutions, needed to let its clients have flexible, automated, and compliant onboarding across multiple jurisdictions. They previously worked with many legacy setups for verification, many of them manual and hard to adapt to different cases.
Since implementing Sumsub’s tools, T23’s clients could have a faster, more efficient, and more compliant process without the previous problems with day-to-day onboarding. They brought AML Screening together with other tools Sumsub offers, creating a connected environment with a lot less manual work.
- Gained automated, configurable end-to-end verification flows that combine KYC and KYB into a single experience
- False positives the company had in AML screening fell by 40%
- T23’s onboarding cycle times dropped by approximately 70%
Martín Cativa
Chief Technology Officer, T23 Group
We’ve also seen AML false positives drop by around 40% and compliance operating costs decrease by 25–30%, which has made Sumsub a cornerstone of every transformation we deliver.
Results that speak for themselves
AML screening is often judged by two metrics: how effectively it detects risk and how efficiently teams can manage investigations with its help.
Sumsub reports show that companies using its platform achieve a reduction in false positives and resolve up to 95% of cases accurately through AI assistance and workflow automation. They could complete AML screening in less than a second, as well.
Teams implemented the AML screening solution and established workflows with which they could automate checks and significantly speed up verification and onboarding times, all within a week’s time.
Sumsub’s platform also aids companies and compliance teams with centralized reporting, audit logs, screening histories, and reports for regulatory reviews that can be exported, which improves their detection times and user experience.
AML screening strategies for fintech, crypto, and iGaming companies
Different industries have unique AML risks, but the core challenge is the same: they need to consistently spot suspicious activity early and avoid complicated processes that slow down onboarding for legitimate users at the same time.
For example, fintech companies need AML screening systems that can handle larger volumes of new users and cross-border transactions. On top of this effectiveness, they need to keep up with changing regulations if they want to stay compliant.
Then, crypto platforms must monitor activity continuously, not just when customers sign up. They need to examine transaction behavior, analyze customer wallets, assess sanctions risks, and ensure their platform is fully compliant with the Travel Rule.
Finally, iGaming operators regularly face the challenge of managing and avoiding fraud or payment abuse. They also need to follow jurisdiction-specific AML obligations and maintain a smooth experience for their users.
In all these areas, AML screening is most effective when it’s part of a larger system rather than a standalone process. By integrating these tools into a single workflow, companies can respond quickly to risks and stay compliant as they grow globally.