Solution · Adverse Media Screening

Adverse Media Screening With Signal, Not Noise

One Constellation screens customers against structured negative-news data from licensed and open-web sources — categorised against FATF predicate offences, weighted by source credibility and recency, so analysts work the matches that matter.

The Challenge

The Problem With Most Adverse Media Screening Is Volume

Adverse media screening is required by FATF, MAS, FCA, FinCEN and every major AML regime as part of customer due diligence — and especially enhanced due diligence on high-risk relationships. The principle is straightforward: regulated firms should know whether a customer has been credibly linked to financial crime, corruption, sanctions evasion or other predicate offences.

The execution problem is volume. A common customer name returns thousands of unrelated news mentions. A celebrity who shares a name with your customer drowns the queue. Tabloid coverage of a divorce gets ranked alongside an indictment for wire fraud. Compliance teams either spend hours sifting noise or — more commonly — quietly stop screening adverse media at all and hope the regulator doesn't notice.

One Constellation handles adverse media as structured intelligence: events extracted from licensed and open-web sources, categorised against FATF's 22 predicate offence categories, weighted by source credibility and event recency, and de-duplicated across sources so a single event doesn't surface as fifty alerts.

How It Works

Structured Negative News, Categorised the Way Regulators Think About Risk

Structured event categorisation

Every adverse media hit is tagged with the relevant predicate offence category — fraud, corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing, sanctions evasion, tax offences and the rest of the FATF 22. Analysts filter on what's actually material to AML risk.

Source weighting & de-duplication

Coverage of the same event across 30 outlets surfaces as one event, not thirty alerts. Tier-1 reputable sources are weighted higher than aggregator blogs. Tabloid coverage is flagged differently from regulatory or judicial sources.

A regulator doesn't ask how many news mentions you reviewed. They ask whether you identified the events that mattered — and whether you acted on them.
— Design principle, One Constellation adverse media engine
Operational Impact

Adverse Media, Measured

Performance figures from One Constellation adverse media screening, drawn from production deployments.

22
FATF Predicate Offence Categories
60K+
Source Outlets Covered
85%
Average Noise Reduction
150+
Languages Supported
Real-Time
Event Ingestion
What's Included

Adverse Media Screening as a Complete Capability

Structured event data, intelligent matching, source weighting, de-duplication and case-management integration — adverse media on One Constellation is not just a news API.

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Onboarding Adverse Media

Every new customer is screened against the structured adverse media database at onboarding, with predicate-offence categorisation and source weighting returned in real time.

Explore Onboarding →
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Continuous Monitoring

Existing customers are continuously rescreened against newly ingested events — material adverse coverage surfaces within the day, not at the next periodic review.

Explore Portal →
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EDD Triggering

Confirmed material adverse coverage automatically routes the customer to the appropriate EDD workflow with the source events attached as evidence.

Explore AML/CFT →
Capabilities

Everything a Mature Adverse Media Programme Needs

The features that turn adverse media from a noisy nuisance into a usable AML signal.

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FATF Predicate Offence Tagging

Every event tagged against the FATF 22 categories — fraud, corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking, sanctions evasion, tax crime, environmental crime and the rest.

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Source Credibility Weighting

Tier-1 reputable outlets, regulatory and judicial sources weighted higher than aggregator blogs or unverified social content.

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150+ Language Coverage

Adverse media ingested from sources in over 150 languages, with translated event summaries returned in your operating language.

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Event Recency Weighting

Recent events surfaced first; aged or superseded coverage de-prioritised. Cleared events (acquittals, dismissals) tagged accordingly.

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Event-Level De-Duplication

Coverage of the same event across multiple outlets is de-duplicated at the event level — one event, one alert, multiple supporting sources.

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Match Evidence & Audit Trail

Every hit returns the underlying event summary, source list, ingestion date and category tags — exportable as evidence in any regulator's preferred format.

Regulatory Alignment

Aligned to the AML Regimes That Require Adverse Media Screening

Adverse media screening is a stated expectation under FATF Recommendation 10 and every major national AML regime built on it. One Constellation maps directly to the obligations each regulator imposes.

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FATF Rec 10
Customer Due Diligence Standard
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MAS Notice 626
Adverse Information & EDD
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FCA SYSC 6.3
Ongoing Monitoring & Risk
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FinCEN CDD Rule
Customer Risk Profile
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EU 6AMLD
Reputational Risk Assessment
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HKMA AMLO
Negative News Screening
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AUSTRAC
AML/CTF Programme Standards
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DFSA / CBUAE
EDD & Adverse Information
Part of the Platform

Adverse Media, Connected to Every Compliance Decision

Adverse media findings don't sit in a separate report. They feed customer risk scoring, EDD requirements, transaction-monitoring sensitivity and SAR-filing decisions — across the same platform.

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Integrated With
CRA · EDD · Periodic Review

When material adverse coverage is confirmed against a customer, the platform automatically reassesses risk score, triggers the EDD workflow appropriate to the predicate-offence category, and adjusts transaction-monitoring thresholds — all visible in a single customer view.

Every action and decision is preserved in the customer record's audit trail, so regulators see not just that adverse media was screened but exactly how the firm responded to material hits.

Adverse Media FAQ

What Compliance Teams Ask Us

How does adverse media screening differ from a Google news search?+
Adverse media screening on One Constellation uses structured event data — every event extracted, tagged against FATF predicate offence categories, weighted by source credibility, and de-duplicated across coverage. A Google search returns unstructured results that an analyst has to manually sort. Our approach surfaces the events that matter and suppresses the noise.
What sources are covered?+
Over 60,000 source outlets including tier-1 financial press, regulatory and judicial publications, national newspapers across 150+ languages, and curated open-web sources. Tabloid and aggregator content is included but weighted lower than reputable journalism.
How does the platform handle false positives — common-name customers?+
Match strength uses biographical context beyond name — date of birth, nationality, occupation, known affiliations — to disambiguate common names. Where ambiguity remains, the platform surfaces both the strong-context and weak-context matches separately, so analysts triage with full visibility.
How are 'cleared' or 'acquitted' events handled?+
Subsequent acquittals, dismissals, retractions and corrections are ingested and tagged against the original event. Analysts see the full event lifecycle, and risk-scoring weights are adjusted accordingly.
Is the database available in non-English sources?+
Yes — events are ingested in 150+ languages, with structured translation summaries returned in your operating language. The underlying source language is preserved in the evidence trail.
Can adverse media categories be customised?+
The FATF 22 predicate offences are the baseline categorisation. Custom categorisation layers (industry-specific risk types, internal taxonomy alignment, additional reputational categories) are supported as configuration on top of the baseline.

Adverse Media That Surfaces Real Risk.

See how One Constellation handles adverse media screening across 60,000+ sources and 150+ languages — with the signal-to-noise ratio compliance teams need.

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