Adverse Media Screening
How WatchTower screens customers and counterparties against news and media sources, and keeps high-risk subjects under ongoing monitoring.
Coverage beyond lists
Find reputational and financial-crime signals in news coverage before a formal designation exists.
Human-reviewed findings
Every finding is advisory and closed out with a recorded decision, reviewer, and rationale.
Ongoing monitoring
Enrol high-risk subjects so new coverage is caught automatically, without waiting for the next manual refresh.
What adverse media screening covers
Watchlists tell you whether someone has already been designated as a risk by a sanctions authority or similar body. Adverse media screening covers a different gap: it looks at published news and media coverage for signals that a person or business is connected to fraud, corruption, financial crime, or other reputational risk, even before any formal designation exists.
A screening run compares a customer or counterparty against governed, licensed news sources and returns any relevant coverage found, with enough context for a human to judge whether it matters.
Typical uses
- screen a new customer or business during onboarding review
- screen a counterparty on a high-value or high-risk transaction
- refresh screening periodically for customers who stay active over time
- enrol a specific high-risk subject in ongoing monitoring so new coverage is caught as it is published
Findings are advisory, not automatic
A finding from adverse media screening is evidence for a person to review. It never changes a transaction decision by itself, and it never closes itself. An analyst looks at the finding, the underlying coverage, and the context, then records a disposition.
What a finding carries
- the subject the finding relates to
- a severity level to help prioritize review
- a summary of the coverage found
- a status such as open, in review, dispositioned, suppressed, or closed
- links back to the case it supports, when one exists
Adverse media findings are always advisory evidence. They inform a human decision. They are never used on their own to allow, review, or block a transaction.
Disposition and audit trail
Every finding is closed out with a recorded decision, not just dismissed. The person who reviewed it, their decision, and their reasoning are all preserved, so the outcome can be explained later during an audit or regulatory inquiry.
- the reviewer records a decision and a rationale
- the evidence in place at the time of the decision is preserved, even if the underlying source changes later
- the finding status updates to reflect the recorded decision
Ongoing monitoring
For subjects who warrant continued attention, screening does not have to be a one-time event. A subject can be enrolled in ongoing monitoring so that new coverage is picked up automatically as it is published, instead of waiting for the next manual refresh.
Monitoring lifecycle
- enrol a subject in ongoing monitoring
- pause monitoring when it is temporarily not needed
- resume monitoring when attention is needed again
- new findings from monitoring appear the same way as findings from a manual screening run
Useful API areas
Most adverse media work happens through the WatchTower console, but the underlying operations are available through the API for teams that want to trigger screening or manage monitoring programmatically.