A UK accountancy practice is a relevant person under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 (as amended). That means the firm must perform identification, verification, and ongoing monitoring on every client and every beneficial owner - including PEP screening and sanctions screening. For most mid-sized firms, this has historically meant either an expensive third-party screening subscription with a clunky external dashboard, or the much worse option: a manual Google search and a hopeful note in the file.
Accupe brings OpenSanctions data directly into the workflow. Screening happens where the work happens, every check is recorded, and the result is visible on the same client record that holds the engagement letter and the AML risk assessment.
What OpenSanctions actually covers
OpenSanctions is a well-maintained, openly governed dataset that consolidates global sanctions lists, politically exposed person registers, and adverse media flags into a single queryable corpus. It is updated continuously from primary sources - the UK OFSI consolidated list, EU sanctions, OFAC, UN, and dozens of national PEP registers. For a firm, this means a screening hit is grounded in named, verifiable source data, not in a black-box risk score.
- UK OFSI consolidated sanctions list
- EU and OFAC sanctions designations
- United Nations Security Council designations
- PEP databases across multiple jurisdictions
- Adverse media flags from public sources
- Linked entity relationships - directors, shareholders, family members
How screening triggers inside Accupe
Screening is not a separate task. When a client is onboarded, the system runs the initial screening as part of the onboarding workflow. When a beneficial owner is added to a client record, screening runs on that individual. When ongoing monitoring is configured - typically daily or weekly depending on risk band - Accupe re-screens the existing client base on schedule. Every result is recorded against the client record with a timestamp and the dataset version used.
What a hit looks like and what the firm does next
A hit does not automatically mean the firm has a problem. It means the firm has a decision. Accupe surfaces the hit on the client record, displays the matched entity, the source list, and the matching attributes (name similarity, date of birth, country). The compliance officer reviews, decides whether the match is a true positive or a false positive, records the rationale in the audit log, and either escalates the file for enhanced due diligence or clears the hit. The decision and the reasoning sit on the client record forever.
Why "in the workflow" matters more than the dataset
Plenty of products offer screening. The differentiator in Accupe is that screening lives inside the same record that holds the engagement letter, the KYC documents, the risk assessment, the Smart Board jobs, and the Compliance Radar status. The compliance officer does not log in to a separate tool, copy the client name, run a check, screenshot the result, and email it to themselves for filing. They open the client record, see the screening status, click in, and act. Friction collapses; consistent practice survives.
Ongoing monitoring is the harder problem
One-off screening at onboarding is the easy half. The MLR 2017 requirement is ongoing monitoring - re-screening through the life of the relationship. A client may become a PEP after onboarding because they were appointed to a public role. A beneficial owner may appear on a new sanctions list. Manual ongoing monitoring almost always fails because nobody sets the calendar reminder for 600 clients. Accupe automates the re-screen on a cadence the firm sets and surfaces only the deltas - new hits since the last check - so the compliance team is not drowning in repeated clean results.
The audit trail the regulator expects
When a supervisor reviews the firm's AML file, they want to see three things on screening: that it was performed, that it was performed against a credible dataset, and that any hits were reviewed and rationalised by a named person. Accupe produces all three by default. The screening log shows the dataset version, the timestamp, the matched fields, the reviewer, the decision, and the next monitoring date. The firm does not need to prepare an audit pack; the audit pack is the record.
Cost and operational reality
Standalone PEP and sanctions screening tools typically charge per-check or per-seat, and many firms find themselves rationing screenings to control cost - which is precisely the opposite of what the regulations expect. Building screening into the platform removes that economic friction. The firm screens every client and every beneficial owner at onboarding and on schedule, because the marginal cost of doing so is effectively zero.
What Accupe does not do
Accupe runs the screening, surfaces the hits, and records the decisions. It does not file Suspicious Activity Reports to the NCA, does not make the final judgement on whether to terminate a client relationship, and does not replace the MLRO's professional duty. Those remain firm responsibilities. The practice-management layer surfaces the risk; the MLRO makes the call.
What changes for the firm
The clearest change is in the AML committee meeting. Where previously the meeting was 40 minutes of "did we screen the new clients this quarter?" arguments, it becomes 40 minutes of substantive review of the hits the system surfaced. The firm moves from anxiety about whether the work is being done to confidence in the work the system has documented.
Closing
Sanctions and PEP screening is not the part of the firm that wins awards. It is the part that, when it fails, ends careers. Accupe puts the screening where the work already lives and records every action against the audit log. The firm gets compliant screening as a side-effect of how it already operates.