Potential matches
In short
Section titled “In short”When a customer or counterparty scores at or above your threshold against a list entry, SpeculaPro records a potential match, also called a hit. It is the engine saying these two might be the same; a person should look.
Your reviewers work potential matches on the Screening page: they compare the customer with the list entry and resolve each one as a false positive or a true match. See Reviewing a potential match.
Until someone decides, an open potential sanctions match already counts: by default a real-time decision on a payment to or from that party answers review.
What a potential match holds
Section titled “What a potential match holds”| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Subject | The customer or counterparty, and the name as it was screened |
| Source | The list (un-sc, us-ofac-sdn, import:<name> …) or provider:<key> |
| Entry | The publisher’s reference for the list entry, the name or alias that matched, and its kind |
| Categories | sanction for a sanctions list; from a provider also pep, pep_rca, adverse_media, watchlist, other |
| List version | Which version of the list it was found in |
| Score, name score, threshold | The final score, the name score alone, and the threshold in force at the time |
| Explanation | Why it scored that way. See Reading an explanation |
| Status | See below |
| Assigned to | The reviewer working it, if anyone |
| Decision | For a resolved match: who decided, when, their reason, and the designation and case a true match led to |
| Timeline | Comments, assignments and the decision, oldest first |
| Closed reason, closed at | For a match that left the queue without a person’s decision: why, and when. See Why a match was closed |
Opening one potential match also shows the list entry itself (all names, dates of birth, nationalities, IDs, programmes and remarks) beside your own record, which is what a reviewer needs to decide.
There is one open potential match per subject and list entry. Screening the same person again refreshes it with the latest score and list version; it doesn’t add another.
Statuses
Section titled “Statuses”| Status | Shown as | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
open |
Open | Found, still found the last time the person was screened, and not yet decided. A decision waiting for a second person leaves it open |
cleared |
False positive | A reviewer decided it is someone else |
confirmed |
True match | A reviewer decided it is the listed party |
superseded |
No longer matches | The match no longer stands: the person was screened again and no longer matches this entry (their details changed, the entry changed, or the threshold went up), or your workspace stopped screening against the list |
delisted |
Delisted | The entry was removed from its list |
Potential matches are never deleted by screening; they change status.
Why a match was closed
Section titled “Why a match was closed”A match that leaves the queue without a person’s decision records why and when, in
closed_reason and closed_at:
closed_reason |
Status | What happened |
|---|---|---|
no_longer_matches |
superseded |
A later screening of the person against that list or provider no longer found this entry |
entry_delisted |
delisted |
The entry left its list |
source_removed |
superseded |
Your workspace stopped screening against the list |
An open match has neither field. Matches closed before these fields existed were given
no_longer_matches or entry_delisted from their status, and the time of their last change.
When you stop screening against a list
Section titled “When you stop screening against a list”A match on a list you no longer screen against would never be refreshed again, so it is closed:
- When you clear a list under Settings → Screening, its open matches are closed in the same
save, as
supersededwith the reasonsource_removed. The audit log records how many (screening.hits.close). - When your default lists move before you ever saved a choice, for example because the workspace’s jurisdiction changed, the worker closes them the same way at its next pass.
- Provider matches stay open. A match from
provider:<key>is a person’s to decide, whatever happens to the provider’s configuration.
If you screen against the list again, everyone is screened against it again and people who still match get a new potential match. The closed one stays as the record of what happened.
When a provider can’t be reached
Section titled “When a provider can’t be reached”If a provider could not be asked about a person, that provider’s earlier matches on the person are left open: nothing is known about them until the provider answers. See Providers.
What a decision does
Section titled “What a decision does”| Decision | What SpeculaPro does |
|---|---|
| False positive | Records the pair on the good-guy list. The same customer and list entry are not raised again until the list entry changes or the customer’s screened details change. One clearance is in force per customer and entry: a newer one replaces the older |
| True match | Sets the risk designation for the kind of list (a sanctions match sets Sanctioned), raises an alert and opens a case, or joins the party’s active case of that kind. The pair is not raised again while the designation stands |
A true match, and clearing a match against a sanctions list, need a second person by default.
While that approval is not in effect (fewer than two people hold screening.approve, or the
workspace switched it off), only someone with screening.approve can decide a match against a
sanctions list. The
steps, the approval and what each decision changes are on
Reviewing a potential match.
What is kept
Section titled “What is kept”A potential match stores the screened name, the score and the explanation in the clear, and for a provider match the provider’s full answer. SpeculaPro also keeps, for every screened subject, a fingerprint of what was screened and when, and the error of a provider that could not be asked; the fingerprint contains no readable personal data.
Screening records are a retention category of their own, Sanctions and PEP screening, with the AML minimum of your jurisdiction:
- Open matches are never removed. A customer with an open match is held, like a customer with an open case: their records are not purged or erased while the match is undecided. A match whose decision is waiting for a second person is still open.
- A resolved match no longer holds the customer. Once a reviewer clears or confirms it, the ordinary rules apply again. After a true match those rules usually still hold the customer: the case it opened holds them while it is active, and the match, the designation and the customer record stay for their AML retention periods.
- Closed and resolved matches go once both the match’s closing or decision and the end of the customer relationship are older than the period. For a counterparty, the last transaction it was seen in counts.
- When a customer is erased or pseudonymised, the name on their matches becomes the customer’s pseudonym, and the provider’s answer, the explanation’s details and free-text notes are removed. On the match’s timeline, every comment and decision reason is replaced with Removed (data protection); who did what and when stays. The list entry, the scores, the status and the dates stay, as evidence that the screening happened.
- Screening records are never part of a data subject’s export, for anyone, so an export can’t reveal that someone matched a sanctions list or was cleared.
This is not legal advice; confirm with counsel.