Adverse Media screening (also known as negative news screening) consists of one of the techniques required to perform business due diligence successfully. From the watered-down perspective, it is the principle of comparing a business with (“screened against”) negative data and news sources. With adverse media screening, institutions can prevent the consequences of linking to problems before the association is established and reputational issues damaged.
That level of negative media screening rules is even less structured than other rules and regulations instructing banks to screen funds from sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEPs) during customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Therefore, adverse media screening has become an integral part of comprehensive anti-financial crime programs.
Types of Adverse Media
Different IT media can be classified according to the areas they cover and the delivery channels. The source and type of content formed comprise this diversity's major component. Some common types of negative media include:
- Negative News Articles
- Social Media
- Regulatory and Legal Issues
Negative News Article
One method of negative media is the publication of bad press articles. Publicity may involve the disclosure of scandals, misbehavior, or other unethical aspects of a business or individual. A usual everyday response may be droplets seen in the most critical ones, later shared by other media, and then shared by a wide variety of social media.
Social Media
Social media has now put incredible depth into the likelihood of consumers expressing their views and criticism. Customers' comments, reviews, and posts on Social Media Platforms spread bad reputations much faster than good ones, which are not easy to control. Besides social media usage with appropriate judgment, another issue on brand is viral controversial videos that can ruin the name of a Company. This is an extreme feeling for companies that depend upon social media (including Facebook) for advertising or promotion of their brands and products.
Regulatory and Legal Issues
Another type of négative media can be further business activity when dealing with the presence of regulations and legal problems. Actions that can count are paying fines or ensuring winners bring a suit for unethical behavior or lies. They could be in the form of regulatory reports and legal filings that violate the norms or ethical standards of the industry. These can all harm businesses' reputations. Sometimes, they can be really harmful to organizations, especially the ones that not only face huge fines but also have a blackened reputation.
What are the Challenges of Adverse Media Screening?
The difficulties of effective adverse media screening in media advertising are well covered for the majority of business leaders, finance crime supervisors, and even contestants of financial institutions that are under government regulation. They face such a challenge as an excessive quantity of alerts that their teams have to sort for, and this consumes more second-nature time than the teams require to conduct lengthy deliberations on the importance of the alerts.
The problem of fake news and targeted misinformation only intensifies, making it quite difficult to choose from available sources of dependable information about other companies. However, while not receiving vital updates might lead to a regulatory violation, the constant adverse media screening of unstructured data and news feeds is a complex, demanding, and expensive task.
Solutions For Screening Adverse News
Compliance professionals recommended using the risk-based approach (FATF), which is adopted differently, is flexible in terms of tools or methodology, and does not have any adverse media screening guidelines from best practices. Yet, some large-scale programs that work effectively give rise to volumes of publicly available information, credibility, and authenticity of news sources, as well as inaccurate identity matching and verification due to lack of cost.
Although the searches can be programmed to be run automatically, teams involved in watching adverse media can reduce the manual effort by utilizing configurable search settings, with contextual knowledge creation, increased bulk screening, and real-time adverse media screening. All of the settings are amplified by the client attributes, which adds contextual information and connections to the overall process.