PEP self-check · $59 · same day
See what a compliance officer sees, before they see it
For former ministers, deputy ministers, senior officials, judges, military officers and state-enterprise executives who have left office and need a dated record of what the consolidated sanctions and PEP lists currently show against their name.
The honest position
PEP status has no fixed expiry date
EU anti-money-laundering rules require enhanced due diligence for at least twelve months after a person ceases to hold a prominent public function. That twelve months is a minimum, not a release. After it, the obligation becomes a risk-based judgement made by each institution on its own terms.
In practice, for a minister, a central bank official, a senior judge, a general or the head of a state-owned enterprise — and particularly where the jurisdiction is one banks treat as higher risk — that judgement often keeps the classification in place for five years, ten years, or with no end date at all. Commercial databases rarely remove an entry; they annotate it.
So this is not a service that tells you whether you have aged out. It tells you precisely what a compliance officer will pull up on your name, in what wording, from which source — while you still have time to prepare an answer.
What gets checked
One narrow check, run properly and returned the same day
This is deliberately not the full Individual Report. It screens the three consolidated lists a bank hits first, on the identifiers you supply, and gives you a dated record of the result. That narrowness is what makes it $59 rather than $119.
- 01
OFAC sanctions and SDN list
The United States consolidated list, matched against your name and every variation you supply. This is the layer a bank's onboarding system hits first, and the one that decides whether your file goes to a human.
- 02
United Nations consolidated list
The UN Security Council consolidated sanctions list, screened on the same identifiers on the same date.
- 03
European Union consolidated list
The EU consolidated financial sanctions list, screened on the same identifiers on the same date.
- 04
PEP classification and continuing-influence research
Your PEP status and exposure tier, worked out by applying recognized criteria to the role, country and dates you declare — then tested against an independent search of public web and news sources for evidence that your influence continues.
Methodology
How the PEP classification is reached
Two different things happen in this report, and we keep them apart on the page. The three sanctions lists are searched directly: your name and every variation you give us are matched against the published records, and the result is whatever those records say.
The classification itself comes from applying recognized PEP criteria and independent public-record research to the information provided. No PEP determination, from any provider, is a lookup in a single authoritative database — none exists. Commercial screening vendors build their own databases from the same public sources (government disclosures, court records, news), just without showing their reasoning. This report shows exactly which facts and sources led to the conclusion.
You tell us the category of public function you held, the country and the dates. Any prominent public function makes you a PEP, permanently; the exposure tier is high while serving or within twelve months of leaving, medium between one and five years, and low beyond five years except for heads of state and government. Those breakpoints are a common industry operational proxy, informed by FATF's risk-based principles rather than prescribed by them — FATF's guidance says PEP treatment should be based on an assessment of risk and not on prescribed time limits.
Which is why we do not stop at what you declare. Every self-check also runs an independent search of public web and news sources for evidence that your influence continues: current party leadership, board or advisory seats, government-adjacent appointments, or coverage describing you as currently influential. If nothing material is found, that absence is recorded and dated in the report. If something is found, it is not resolved automatically — an analyst reviews the candidate and confirms or dismisses it before you receive anything, even where the declared dates would have produced a low tier.
The report prints the rules that fired, the searches run, and which of the two sources drove each part of the conclusion. A high exposure tier is always reviewed by an analyst before the report is sent, even when the sanctions lists are clear.
Not included
What this check does not cover
- Offshore and beneficial ownership records (ICIJ Offshore Leaks)
- A full analyst-run adverse media sweep
- Digital footprint review
- Corporate registry verification
- Litigation and court record searches
If a bank has already raised something beyond the lists, the full Individual Report screens all of the above with an analyst writing the findings.
Why self-screening is cleaner
You are the subject and the customer
Most due diligence is done on someone who does not know it is happening, from whatever identifiers a third party happens to hold. Here the consent is complete and the identifiers are exact: your legal name as documented, every transliteration your name has appeared under, a document number, the precise titles and dates you served.
That difference matters to the result. Loose name matching is what produces false positives on common names and transliterated names — and a false positive sitting unaddressed in a screening database is exactly the thing that stalls an account application for weeks without explanation.
We do not lobby databases on your behalf and we do not offer removal. We give you an accurate, sourced, dated record of what is currently visible, and a written note of where it appears inaccurate.
Questions
What people ask before ordering a self-check
- Does PEP status expire after 12 months?
- No. EU rules set a 12-month minimum period of enhanced due diligence after a person leaves a prominent public function, but that is a floor, not an end date. Banks continue to apply their own risk-based judgement afterwards, and for senior roles — or roles in jurisdictions they treat as higher risk — PEP classification commonly persists for five years, ten years, or indefinitely.
- Will this report remove me from a PEP database?
- No, and any service claiming otherwise is misleading you. There is no single authoritative PEP database to be removed from — commercial screening vendors each build their own from public sources. What this report gives you is an accurate, dated record of what the consolidated sanctions and PEP lists currently show against your name, plus the reasoning behind your classification, so you can prepare and answer questions before they are asked.
- What exactly is screened?
- Consolidated OFAC, United Nations and European Union sanctions lists, matched against your name, any variations or transliterations you supply, and any family members you name. Alongside that, a PEP classification that applies recognized criteria to the role information you declare and tests it against an independent search of public web and news sources for evidence of continuing influence. Offshore records, a full adverse media sweep, digital footprint and corporate registry verification are not included — those belong to the full Individual Report.
- Why is it only $59?
- Because it is one narrow check, run automatically. There is no analyst writing narrative unless something is actually found. If your name is clear, the report is generated and emailed to you within minutes of payment. If anything matches, an analyst reviews it before you receive anything, and we contact you directly.
- How long does it take?
- Usually within the hour, and often within minutes. A clean result is delivered automatically. If a match comes up on any list, delivery is held and an analyst reviews it first, which takes up to one business day.
- Is it a problem that I am screening myself?
- It is the cleanest version of this work. You are the subject and the customer, the check runs with your full consent, and you can supply the identifiers — exact legal name, transliterations, document numbers — that make matching precise rather than a list of loose name hits.
Start
Order a self-check on your own name
The intake asks for the identifiers that make the screening precise: your legal name as documented, the transliterations it has appeared under, and a document number. A flat $59, paid at checkout. If your name is clear of the lists, the report is generated and emailed to you automatically, usually within the hour. If anything matches, delivery is held and an analyst reviews it before you receive anything.
These reports are commercial due diligence documents. They are not consumer reports and may not be used for employment, tenancy, credit or insurance decisions. See the disclaimer.