PrimeIQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the primary function of Prime Internet Query?

A. Prime Internet Query provides information about Sanctioned Parties, terrorists, money launders and fraudsters as well as potential high-risk parties such as politically exposed persons. The objective of this service is to deny access to the financial service for parties that could bring high risk with them.

Q. Who will benefit from Prime Internet Query service?

A. The governments and international organization issued new regulations in order to exclude misuse of the financial system by criminals, terrorist and their supporters. Regulators require businesses to demonstrate due diligence in the checking of the customer profiles and compliance management. Service of the Sanctioned Parties could damage financial reputation and bring regulatory investigations and fines.

Q. How does Prime Internet Query work?

A. Prime Internet Query uses a powerful name-matching algorithm provided by
Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions The algorithm evaluates machine-generated name permutations, keywords, and terms. Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions is very much focused on all aspects of regulatory compliance. We take the standard lists provided by government organizations and enhance them in a variety of ways to ensure that the data will be most effective for use in filtering applications.
Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions takes great care to perform quality assurance on every list and update, in order to meet our high data quality standards.

Q. What are the primary sources of the information for Prime Compliance Databank?

A. Prime Compliance Databank compiles information on designated individuals from the following sources:

1.	OFAC - Office of Foreign Assets Control
	The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury publishes a list of those individuals and organizations that have been deemed to be counter to US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. OFAC’s frequently-updated master list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) and Blocked Persons is the basis for Prime’s OFAC data distribution.
2.	FATF-NCCT - Financial Action Task Force's list of the non-cooperative countries and territories
	The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) identifies non-cooperative countries and territories (NCCTs) in the effort to prevent money laundering. The FATF lists contains a list of NCCT countries that the FATF asks its members to request financial institutions give special attention to businesses and transactions with persons, including companies and financial institutions, in these countries or territories. This is done to pressure these countries to enact legal reforms.
3.	BIS-DPL - Bureau of Industry and Security Denied Persons List
	The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce is responsible for the regulation of exports for national security, foreign policy, and nonproliferation reasons, as well as the enforcement of those regulations. BIS published Denied Persons List (DPL) on the WEB.
4.	EU - The European Union (EU) consolidated list
	The European Union (EU) has released a consolidated list of persons, groups and entities subject to Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) related financial sanctions. This database is maintained by the EU to assist the members of the EU Credit Sector Federations in their compliance with financial sanctions.
5.	OECD TAX HAVEN - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
	The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of 30 member countries that deal with economic and social policies. They may form agreements to act in a formal way for example by establishing legally binding agreements to crack down on bribery, or codes for free flow of capital and services. The OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs has designated countries on their list as practicing harmful tax practices, thereby deeming unco-operative tax havens.
6.	OSFI - Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
	The Canadian Government’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) is the primary regulator of federally chartered financial institutions. OSFI is responsible for supervising and regulating all banks, and all federally incorporated or registered trust and loan companies, insurance companies, cooperative credit associations, fraternal benefit societies and pension plans. Regulations mandate that every Canadian financial institution and foreign branch operating in Canada review their records on a continuing basis for the names of individuals listed in OSFI’s Schedule to the Regulations, and report their findings on a monthly basis.
7.	BOE - Bank of England
	The Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom, regularly publishes lists of individuals and organizations against which financial sanctions have been imposed. This list contains detailed information about each entity, including detailed name and address information.
8.	DFAT - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
	Two of the stated goals of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are to strengthen global cooperation in ways that advance Australia’s interests and to enhance Australia’s security. Towards that end, the Australian DFAT list is published in an effort to freeze the assets of terrorists by making it a criminal offense for persons who hold assets that are owned or controlled by persons or entities on the list, or to use or deal with those assets.
9.	FEP - Financially Exposed Persons
	It has been suggested by various financial consortiums that enhanced due diligence should be given to those individuals who have access to corporate wealth due to their positions within a corporation. Such individuals warrant identification and extra scrutiny as part of a financial organization's "Know Your Customer" policy. Prime has deemed these individuals Financially Exposed Persons ("FEPs"), which applies to those individuals who hold executive management or board positions in the worlds' largest companies.All information is derived from publicly available sources, and includes discriminating information about each person, as well as a link back to the corporate web site with which they are affiliated.
10.	PEP - Politically Exposed Persons
	Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions has released a new data subscription offering as part of our Prime Data Services: a "Politically Exposed Persons" list. The term Politically Exposed Persons ("PEPs") applies to those individuals who perform public functions for a government or administrative body, members of ruling royal families, as well as influential people in religious organizations. The PEPs list includes persons who are currently or have formerly occupied their position within the past three years. Also of regulatory significance are the family and close associates of PEPs. All information will be derived from publicly available sources and be screened for quality. Since the financial transactions of individuals identified as PEPs and their associates may be of interest to those organizations acting as their agent, it is incumbent upon financial institutions to know their customers and identify PEPs.
11.	FRAUD - Financial Fraud
	Any Know Your Customer program would not be complete without the identification of customers who may have committed financial misdeeds. Furthermore, it is in a financial institution’s best interests to understand who might pose a substantial risk to the organization. It is with that intent that the Fraud Database was created. Fraud data has been collected from a variety of publicly accessible sites from around the world to create a repository against which names can be filtered. The names and other identifying information, when available, of those charged with financial misconduct have been gathered from a variety of government, financial, and news sources. This data will be continually updated as events happen and new sources are incorporated.
12.	WMD - Weapons of Mass Destruction Nonproliferation List
	The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury publishes a Nonproliferation List of the companies, which illegally distribute technologies related to the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
13.	SPECIAL - Entries added by Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions
	Special list contains entries added by Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions, including SWIFT TIDS (SWIFT Terminal Identifiers) and CHIPS UIDS (bank/account unique identifiers for processing payments) of the Sanctioned Parties, Sanctioned Country Names, CIA List of government officials, sanctioned countries, major cities, airports and seaports of sanctioned countries.
14.	UN - Consolidated List
	UN Consolidated List The Security Council of the United Nations is empowered to take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security under Chapter VII of their charter. One such enforcement measure is the imposition of sanctions, including economic and trade sanctions, arms embargoes, travel bans, and other financial or diplomatic restrictions. In an effort to gain adherence to their objectives, the Security Council has imposed sanctions on individuals and organizations through a variety of resolutions. Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions has compiled the salient resolutions into a single list against which financial organizations can filter their customers and/or transactions.
15.	DTC - Debarred Parties List
	The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DTC) is charged with controlling the export and temporary import of defense articles and defense services covered by the United States Munitions List. It is involved in acting on license applications for defense trade exports and handling matters related to defense trade compliance, enforcement, and reporting, among its other functions. The DTC List is a list of those persons and organizations that are listed as debarred parties by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls of the U.S. Department of State.
16.	FBITMW - FBI Ten Most Wanted List
	The investigation of violations of federal criminal law and the protection of the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities are part of the mission of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). While the FBI typically seeks approximately 12,000 fugitives from justice at any one time, the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List is their compilation of who they believe to be the ten most dangerous fugitives.
17.	INTERPOL - Interpol List
	The Interpol List contains a list of individuals who are wanted by Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization. All of the individuals on this list are the subject of an Interpol “Red Notice”, signifying that they are wanted by national jurisdictions or international criminal tribunals, with the goal of identifying and locating those persons so that they may be arrested and extradited. This list contains information from those Red Notices approved for public dissemination, which is a fraction of the total number of Red Notices that have been issued. Those listed are wanted for serious crimes, but are considered innocent until proven guilty.
18.	HKMA Hong Kong Monetary Authority List
	The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is the government authority in Hong Kong responsible for maintaining monetary and banking stability. In its supervisory capacity, the HKMA ensures that its banks have adequate policies, procedures and controls in place to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Institutions that find that they have done business with individuals or entities on the HKMA List are required to report such activity to the HKMA and Hong Kong’s Joint Financial Intelligence Unit, which is operated by the police and the Customs and Excise Department.
19.	MAS - Monetary Authority of Singapore List
	The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) administers various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general for the country of Singapore. As part of its function, it issues a list of those individuals and organizations that have been sanctioned by the government of Singapore. Dealing with any of those cited on the MAS List can lead to fines, criminal penalties and increased regulatory scrutiny for financial institutions operating in that country.
20.	MSB - Money Services Businesses List
	Due to the nature of their business, money services businesses (MSBs) pose a serious money laundering concern. It is up to organizations conducting financial dealings with such entities to know their customers and identify any MSBs that are customers or prospective customers. Once MSBs have been identified, an organization to assess and manage their level of risk in dealing with such customers accordingly. With certain exceptions, MSBs are required to register with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) if they provide one or more of the following services: · Money orders · Check cashing · Travelers' checks · Currency dealing or exchange · Money transmission. The MSB List is a listing of all money service businesses that have registered with FinCEN.
21.	NZP - New Zealand Police List
	The New Zealand Police (NZP) is New Zealand’s agency responsible for reducing crime and enhancing community safety. In this capacity, it is the responsibility of the NZP to maintain the list of terrorist entities designated by the UN Security Council Regulations against the Taliban and Al-Qaida, as well as those designated under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002. The NZP List lists all individuals and organizations designated by New Zealand as terrorist entities under the provisions of the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.
22.	NSPLC - Non-SDN Palestinian Legislative Council List
	The United States Department of the Treasury has authorized U.S. financial institutions to reject transactions with individuals on the NS-PLC list. The list is comprised of members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) who were elected on the party slate of Hamas, or any other organization that has been designated by OFAC to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT), or Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), provided that any individuals involved are also not on OFAC’s SDN List (in which case their transactions must be blocked). This list is included for all OFAC List customers.
23.	OCC - Unauthorized and Fictitious Banks List
	It is the role of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter, regulate and supervise all national banks in the United States, as well as to supervise the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. Among the OCC’s powers is to take actions against banks that do not comply with laws or regulations, or engage in unsound banking practices. As part of their effort to ensure the safety and soundness of the national banking system, the OCC provides alerts regarding unauthorized or fictitious banks.
24.	PMLC - Primary Money Laundering Concern List
	Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act authorizes the United States Treasury to designate a foreign jurisdiction, financial institution, class of transactions, or type of account as being of “primary money laundering concern,” and to impose “special measures” against them. The intent of this designation is to help ensure that the international financial system is not being abused by criminals. Knowing those entities on the PMLC List is critical. U.S. financial institutions dealing either directly with the jurisdiction designated as one of primary money laundering concerns, or dealing with those having direct dealings with the designated jurisdiction must be concerned with special measures that they must take. These special measures involve information-gathering and record-keeping requirements, as well as possible prohibition from opening or maintaining a correspondent account or a payable-through account for such an entity.
25.	RBA - Reserve Bank of Australia List
	The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) administers sanctions as specified in the Banking (Foreign Relations) Regulations 1959. Whereas the responsibility of DFAT is to maintain and publish the Australian government’s list of terrorists and their sponsors, as well as those in the former Iraqi regime, it is the responsibility of the RBA to maintain and publish the sanctions lists of those in the former government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ministers and senior officials of the Government of Zimbabwe, and entities associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Transactions involving the transfer of funds or payments involving any person or organization on this list Annex are prohibited without prior authorization from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
26.	TEL - DOS Terrorist Exclusion List
	Under Section 411 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) is authorized to designate terrorist entities for immigration purposes. The Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL) is the list of those entities, and is maintained by the DOS for Homeland security purposes. An organization is placed on the TEL if it commits, plans to commit or supports terrorist activity. A person who is associated with any entities listed on the TEL may be found “inadmissible” to the United States, resulting in them being prevented from entering the United States, or if already in the country, they may face deportation.