What adverse media screening is
Adverse media screening (sometimes called negative news screening) checks whether a customer appears in publicly available news, court reporting, regulatory notices or other open web sources in connection with financial crime or related conduct.
It sits alongside identity verification and sanctions/PEP screening as part of your ongoing customer due diligence obligations. Where sanctions screening asks “is this person on a list?”, adverse media screening asks “has anything been publicly reported about this person that we should know about?”
Updates to AUSTRAC's Tranche 2 starter kits ask reporting entities to consider whether a client may have engaged in criminal or unusual activity. VerifiMe's adverse media screening can help inform this assessment by checking a customer against publicly available negative news sources at the point of verification.
Requesting an adverse media check
If you'd like an adverse media check run for a customer, contact our support team at [email protected] with the customer's full name and reference details. Our team will run the check and update the customer's record accordingly.
What we screen against
Each customer is screened using:
• Full name as captured during identity verification
• Date of birth
• A standard keyword set aligned to AUSTRAC’s predicate offence categories — terms covering money laundering, fraud, terrorism financing, corruption, tax evasion and related conduct
How often screening runs
• Daily screening is available and is currently run for clients who have requested it.
• Turnaround is within 24 hours. A customer onboarded today will have their adverse media report completed and visible in your portal by the following business day.
NB - Screening is not instantaneous at the point of onboarding. If you need a same-session result for a specific customer, raise it with VerifiMe customer support at [email protected]
Where to find a report
Reports appear against the individual customer record in the Management Portal:
1. Log in to the Management Portal
2. Search for and open the customer
3. Open the Customer Profile tab
4. Scroll to the Adverse Media section
5. The section will display a status (for example, No match). Click the status and expand the arrow to view the full report — the report is collapsed by default and will not display automatically
“The section says No match — where’s the report?” The report is still there. The status line is a summary; the underlying report sits behind the expand arrow. A “No match” status means screening was completed and nothing adverse was found, not that screening was skipped. |
What’s in a report
Every report contains:
• Customer name
• Date of birth
• Screening region
• Date and time the screening was run
• Summary of findings
• The full keyword set that was searched
• Conclusion — a plain-language statement of whether adverse media was identified
Understanding the result
Status | What it means | What you should do |
No match | Screening completed. No adverse media identified against the customer. | No action required. The report is your audit evidence that screening occurred. |
Match found | Screening identified material that requires review. | Review the report in full and apply your own risk assessment and escalation policy. Contact Verifime if you need the underlying sources. |
Verifime provides the screening result and supporting report. The risk decision — whether to onboard, offboard, apply enhanced due diligence or report — remains with you as the reporting entity. |
Using reports as audit evidence
Each report is timestamped and stored against the customer record, so the report itself demonstrates:
• That screening was performed
• When it was performed
• What terms were screened
• What the outcome was
This is designed to support your record-keeping obligations under the AML/CTF Act. Retain reports in line with your own retention policy.
Need help?
A report is missing, or a customer record shows no Adverse Media section — contact VerifiMe customer support at [email protected] with the customer name and onboarding date.
You want to change screening frequency — contact VerifiMe client support at [email protected] with the changes.