Your Questions, Answered

Yes—Owlin is recognized as a Category Leader in the Adverse Media Quadrant by Chartis Research, a respected authority in risk technology analysis. This recognition speaks volumes about the clarity, reliability, and innovation behind our solution.

Chartis highlighted Owlin’s strength in processing vast amounts of unstructured data with high accuracy, leveraging advanced AI and GenAI models. Whether you’re monitoring third parties, staying ahead of compliance obligations, or protecting your organization’s reputation, Owlin delivers the insights that matter—clearly and consistently.

Yes—Owlin screens and analyzes adverse media in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and more. Our AI models understand linguistic nuances, regional expressions, and contextual cues, ensuring nothing gets lost in translation.

This multilingual capability is essential for global businesses that manage third-party relationships across borders. Whether a critical news item breaks in Tokyo or Buenos Aires, Owlin catches it and delivers it to your dashboard with context, clarity, and confidence.

KYC processes are designed to verify identity and assess risk—but static data only goes so far. Adverse media screening (and monitoring) adds a dynamic, real-world layer by detecting new risks and shifts in reputation that affect whether a customer remains trustworthy. This way, adverse media screening:

• Validates risk assessments during onboarding
• Allows organizations to stay informed of new developments that might impact customer relationships
• Helps companies meet regulatory expectations for perpetual KYC (pKYC)

With Owlin, KYC becomes more than a checkbox. It evolves into a living, breathing process that adapts to the world in real-time.

Adverse media offers a broader view of an individual or entity’s risk profile than financial records alone. In AML checks, it helps identify ties to criminal organizations, ongoing investigations, sanctions, or unethical behavior that might not show up in traditional databases. By using adverse media insights, compliance teams can:

• Detect early signs of money laundering activity.
• Respond to red flags in real-time
• Avoid onboarding high-risk clients unknowingly

Owlin’s platform enhances AML checks by flagging suspicious activity as it emerges across jurisdictions and industries.

Owlin uses advanced AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to detect, analyze, and categorize risk-relevant news and media in real-time. Unlike basic keyword searches, our models understand context—flagging whether a company is linked to fraud, litigation, regulatory scrutiny, or other risk events.

By automating the process, Owlin eliminates the noise of irrelevant mentions and delivers focused, explainable insights to your team. Whether you’re onboarding a new customer or reviewing an existing partner, Owlin ensures you’re always a step ahead of emerging threats.

Owlin empowers compliance teams to answer the most important question: “Would I onboard or retain this company as a merchant, vendor, client, or counterparty today?” Our AI-powered solution continuously delivers context-rich insights from over three million sources in multiple languages. This helps you:

• Conduct deeper due diligence during onboarding
• Monitor business relationships with real-time risk alerts
• Save time by reducing manual review work
• Comply with pKYC, AML, and third-party risk requirements

Owlin fits seamlessly into your existing workflows and enhances the signal-to-noise ratio by surfacing what truly matters.

Adverse media screening is essential to modern compliance frameworks because it highlights the risks that static documents like financial records alone can’t reveal—fraud allegations, regulatory breaches, or links to criminal activity.

Whether onboarding a new client or managing existing third-party relationships, timely insights from adverse media sources can make the difference between proactive protection and reactive damage control. Moreover, with regulatory expectations rising, screening for adverse media isn’t just a best practice—it’s a necessity.

Adverse media screening is the process of scanning news sources to detect early warning signals about potential partners, clients, vendors, or counterparties. It goes beyond the static data of traditional due diligence, tapping into real-time narratives that reveal reputational red flags—from fraud and corruption to sanctions and criminal activity.

Although regulations may not always provide explicit guidance on adverse media screening as they do for sanctions or politically exposed persons (PEPs), it’s increasingly recognized as a crucial component of a strong AML, KYC strategy.

When screening and monitoring adverse media, businesses watch for red flags indicating potential risks. Common examples include:

• Customer dissatisfaction – Negative reviews or complaints about a company’s service.
• Fraud allegations – Reports implicating executives or board members in fraudulent activities.
• Security breaches – News of data leaks, cyberattacks, or compromised systems.
• Financial misconduct – Claims that a company fails to pay suppliers or meet financial obligations.

Whether assessing counterparties, clients, vendors, suppliers, competitors, or even their reputation, companies can rely on adverse media insights to mitigate financial, operational, regulatory, and reputational risks.

AI automates risk tracking across global data sources, reducing manual effort while delivering real-time insights for faster, more intelligent decision-making.

Yes. Our solution for Banks enables the swift generation of audit trails for each onboarding case and monitoring alert response, ensuring transparency and compliance.

Owlin offers a rich API suite that allows you to load your data into our platform securely and scalable. This will enable you to enrich the company profiles that interest you.

Our solutions for banks set themselves apart with their seamless integration capabilities with existing tools and systems banks utilize. Recognizing that many users already have numerous tools to perform their tasks, our solutions seamlessly integrate with these systems, ensuring a smooth transition and enhancing user experience.

AI automates ESG risk screening, analyzes vast amounts of global data, and provides real-time alerts—reducing manual effort and improving decision-making.

Proactive ESG risk management helps businesses stay compliant, avoid reputational damage, and prevent disruptions caused by ESG-related risks.

Supply chains face a variety of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks that can impact operations, reputation, and compliance. Here are six key examples:

• Environmental Violations – Suppliers engaging in illegal deforestation, excessive carbon emissions, or improper waste disposal can create regulatory and reputational risks.
• Labor Rights Issues – Poor working conditions, child labor, or unfair wages at supplier facilities can lead to legal consequences and brand damage.
• Corruption & Bribery – Unethical business practices, such as bribery or fraud within the supply chain, can result in legal penalties and loss of stakeholder trust.
• Regulatory Non-Compliance – Suppliers failing to meet environmental, labor, or industry-specific regulations can disrupt operations and lead to costly fines.
• Human Rights Violations – Forced labor, unsafe work environments, or discrimination in supplier operations can result in significant reputational and legal challenges.
• Climate Change Impact – Extreme weather events, resource scarcity, or rising operational costs due to climate regulations can threaten supply chain stability.

Yes, it does. Our solutions for payment service providers allow you to generate audit trails for each onboarding case quickly.

At Owlin we recognize that many users already have many tools to perform their tasks. Therefore, Owlin for PSPs distinguishes itself with seamless integration capabilities into existing tools and systems PSPs utilize.

Certainly! Enhance collaboration by annotating and sharing onboarding cases seamlessly with team members. Moreover, user-generated queries can be saved, transferred, or delegated to colleagues, fostering streamlined teamwork.

Our advanced algorithms continuously scan over 3 million mainstream and niche sources across multiple languages in almost real-time. Harnessing the power of AI, specifically Natural Language Processing (NLP), we present pertinent signals through graphs and alerts, enabling you to focus on critical information.

Our process involves cutting-edge algorithms that tirelessly scan through over 3 million sources, including both mainstream and niche outlets, across multiple languages, nearly in real-time. Powered by AI, particularly Natural Language Processing (NLP), we distill relevant signals into easily digestible graphs and alerts, allowing users to concentrate on vital information.

AI-powered tools automate risk tracking across global sources, reducing manual effort while delivering real-time insights to enhance decision-making.

Effective supplier risk management prevents costly disruptions by ensuring compliance, mitigating financial losses, and protecting brand reputation.

Supplier risk monitoring involves the continuous assessment of suppliers to detect potential financial, regulatory, or reputational threats that could impact your business.

AI automates risk monitoring and screening across global data sources, reducing manual effort while providing real-time insights for faster decision-making.

Proactive third-party risk management prevents financial losses, ensures regulatory compliance, and protects organizations from vendor-related disruptions.

Third-party risk monitoring involves continuously assessing vendors, suppliers, and partners for risks to protect your business.

AI automates risk tracking across global data sources, reducing manual effort while delivering real-time insights for faster, more intelligent decision-making.

Counterparty risk monitoring is the continuous assessment of financial, regulatory, and reputational risks associated with counterparties, ensuring businesses remain compliant and resilient.

Manually tracking vendor risks across multiple sources and languages is challenging. AI-powered solutions, like Natural Language Processing (NLP), automate this process by continuously scanning global news, adverse media, regulatory updates, and more. This ensures organizations can efficiently monitor multiple vendors in real time and uncover critical insights that might otherwise be missed.

Proactive vendor monitoring helps organizations mitigate risks across compliance, reputation, operations, and finances. By staying informed about potential red flags, businesses can make confident, data-driven decisions to protect their interests and maintain strong, secure vendor relationships.

Vendor Risk Monitoring is the continuous assessment of your vendors to identify potential risks that could impact your organization. It is a key component of a comprehensive vendor risk management strategy, helping businesses stay ahead of emerging threats.

PSPs can use consumer reviews to monitor their merchants’ performance. Negative product or service reviews, order fulfillment delays, disputed transactions, and complaints about a merchant’s business practices indicate a potential problem. By keeping an eye on customer reviews, PSPs can help ensure they are not exposed to undue risk and can take the necessary steps to protect their finances.

PSPs can use adverse media signals to monitor their merchants’ performance. These signals include indicators such as financial distress, regulatory investigations, and layoffs or downsizing, all of which can be used to identify potential issues with a merchant. By being aware of these signals, PSPs can help ensure they are not exposed to undue risk and can take the necessary steps to protect themselves.

Merchant risk can take many forms:

• Merchant Bankruptcy Risk occurs when a merchant cannot repay debts due to bankruptcy. 
• Excessive Chargeback Risk is a type of risk that occurs when a credit card provider demands that the merchant cover the loss on a fraudulent or disputed transaction.
• Collusive/Fraudulent Risk occurs when a merchant commits fraud using its customers’ (cardholder) accounts and/or personal information. 
• Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing Risk occurs when a merchant processes suspect/ non-vetted transactions on behalf of another business.

PSPs face several challenges when it comes to monitoring merchants. This includes monitoring large, diverse portfolios and not always knowing where to look for signs of financial distress or fraudulent activity. Additionally, PSPs must be able to access and read all the necessary information about their merchants, including any bankruptcies or other red flags. It can be challenging when the data is written in a foreign language. Furthermore, much of this information is not easily accessible, and labor-intensive retrieval from non-standard media can be required to find it. These factors can make it difficult for PSPs to monitor their merchant portfolios effectively, but it is an essential part of their due diligence process.

There are two main reasons for PSPs to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD3 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks. 

Secondly, PSPs must monitor merchants to mitigate the risk of their merchant portfolio. This is especially critical in the underwriting process, in which PSPs accept liability and guarantee payment in the event of fraud. In addition, the PSP is responsible for refunding customers with outstanding orders or payments if a merchant goes bankrupt. Therefore, PSPS must monitor merchants for any signs of financial distress or other red flags that may lead to a merchant defaulting on their payments. Owlin can also help to detect leading risk signals from alternative data sources, such as consumer reviews, to de-risk ahead of an adverse event occurring.

While the terms are often used interchangeably, both refer to identifying potential risks in media coverage—whether it’s cyber threats, financial fraud, or regulatory violations. The goal? To stay informed, proactive, and ahead of risk before it escalates.

Adverse Media Screening → A one-time check conducted before onboarding a client, merchant, or vendor.

Adverse Media Monitoring → Ongoing tracking of risk-related media signals, ensuring continuous oversight of third parties.

Yes, in many industries companies are obligated to conduct adverse media checks. Regulatory bodies mandate financial institutions to implement robust KYC and AML programs, often requiring adverse media checks as part of due diligence.

The definition of adverse media varies by industry, but common red flags include:

• Customer complaints signaling service issues
• Reports of fraud or misconduct involving executives
• News of security breaches, such as data leaks or cyberattacks
• Allegations of financial mismanagement, unpaid suppliers, or regulatory violations

Adverse media screening sounds simple—until you’re buried under an avalanche of alerts. Many compliance teams and risk professionals struggle to separate real threats from noise, leading to wasted time, unnecessary escalations, and operational inefficiencies.

In an era of fake news, misinformation, and rapidly shifting media landscapes, finding trustworthy, relevant information about a counterparty is no small task. The stakes are high: miss a critical news update, and you risk regulatory non-compliance; track too many irrelevant sources, and you drown in data overload.

Manually monitoring millions of unstructured data points across global sources is not only complex but also expensive and unsustainable. Without the right technology, organizations face:

• An overwhelming volume of false positives
•  Inconsistent risk assessments due to unreliable sources
•  Slow response times that expose businesses to risk

The right AI-powered risk intelligence can transform adverse media screening from a manual, reactive process into a smart, proactive strategy—helping businesses focus on what matters most without getting lost in the noise.

Businesses need to know who they’re working with—whether it’s clients, merchants, or vendors. Adverse media monitoring helps organizations identify early risk signals by tracking news indicating risk events such as cybersecurity threats, ESG violations, financial instability, AML-CTF concerns, and regulatory compliance issues. With adverse media insights, companies can mitigate risk before it becomes reputational or financial damage.

Certainly! Owlin offers integrations, enabling you to enrich the Owlin platform with your data and establish a centralized hub of essential intelligence.

Absolutely. Owlin Monitoring stands out with its seamless integration capabilities with existing tools and systems. Recognizing that many users already utilize numerous tools to perform their tasks, Owlin Monitoring effortlessly integrates with these systems, ensuring a smooth transition and enhancing the overall user experience. Frequent systems we integrate with are Fitch Solutions, Aprovall, and Venminder.

Owlin employs advanced algorithms to continuously scan over 3 million mainstream and niche sources across multiple languages almost in real-time. Harnessing the power of AI, particularly Natural Language Processing (NLP), Owlin presents relevant signals through intuitive graphs and alerts, enabling users to focus on critical information.

Yes, it is a self-service solution. We don’t require query knowledge or any technical knowledge to get the insights ready for you, Unlike other platforms that necessitate prior knowledge of a company before initiating searches, Owlin provides a user-friendly self-service platform, allowing users to add cases (companies) themselves.

Yes, each case processed through Owlin Screening generates an exhaustive audit trail tracking every action in the screening process. It saves time during internal audits, regulatory reporting, and audits, streamlining the overall process and ensuring transparency and compliance.

Yes. Owlin Screening sets itself apart with its seamless integration capabilities with existing tools and systems. Recognizing that many users already have numerous tools to perform their tasks, Owlin Screening seamlessly integrates with these systems, ensuring a smooth transition and enhancing user experience.

The Owlin database consists of hundreds of lists from jurisdictions worldwide, such as:

• Watchlist from financial regulatory bodies such as Bafin (Germany), MAS (Singapore), FCA (United Kingdom), among others;
• Wanted lists from renowned law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), and DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency);
• Sanctions Lists include the United Nations Security Council Consolidated lists, the European Union lists, and the OFAC SDN / OFAC Consolidated lists (USA).

Are you interested in a particular list? It is likely part of our sources. If you want to know more, please contact us via our contact form or schedule a free demo to verify.

Yes, with Owlin screening you can check companies for historical news data. 

Yes, it is indeed a self-service solution. Unlike other platforms requiring prior knowledge of a company before initiating searches, Owlin provides a self-service platform, allowing its users to add screening cases (companies) themselves.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

There are two main reasons for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to monitor their merchants. Firstly, they must comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations like PSD2 in the EU. This monitoring goes beyond just preventing fraud; it is a duty to assess, detect, and prevent any risks associated with payments and account access. This involves transaction and risk monitoring to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed and that the payment service provider is not exposed to undue risks.

Secondly, Payment service providers (PSPs) must monitor merchants to mitigate the risk of their merchant portfolio. This is especially critical in the underwriting process, in which PSPs accept liability and guarantee payment in the event of fraud. In addition, the PSP is responsible for refunding customers with outstanding orders or payments if a merchant goes bankrupt. Therefore, PSPS must monitor merchants for any signs of financial distress or other red flags that may lead to a merchant defaulting on their payments. Owlin can also help to detect leading risk signals from alternative data sources, such as customer reviews, to de-risk ahead of an adverse event occurring.