Comprehensive Guide to Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) Check for Candidate Screening

## What it is Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) are individuals with an elevated risk of money laundering stemming from bribery or corruption, often due to their prominent positions or connections to political figures. The PEP check looks at international databases to confirm if your candidate held a key position that could have been exploited for money laundering or other criminal activities like corruption and bribery. ## Why you should run this check Designed to identify how a candidate’s affiliations, past or close relationships may impact your business risk. The core drivers to run this check: - **Compliance with core regulatory bodies** - such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to prevent money laundering and corruption - **Safeguard reputation** - Employing individuals with a PEP status without proper scrutiny can damage a company's reputation if any misconduct or scandal involving these individuals comes to light. - **Prevent corruption** - PEPs often hold positions of influence or power, which can potentially increase the risk of corruption within an organisation. By identifying employees who are PEPs, businesses can implement additional oversight and controls to mitigate the risk of corruption and unethical behaviour. - **Financial risk mitigation** - As a politically connected individual the candidate may have significant financial resource, influence or networks which may pose financial risk to your company ## How to start running PEP checks To start using PEP checks on existing packages: 1. Navigate to Packages. 2. Select the three vertical dots to the right of the package name. 3. Select **Customise Checks**. From there you will be able to toggle on PEP checks in the left hand side menu. ![politically-exposed-persons-pep-check-1](https://storage.googleapis.com/public-fini-assets/zincwork_hc_images/politically-exposed-persons-pep-check-1.gif) When adding this check to a new package, simply toggle it on in the modify checks step. ## How it works for the candidate The requesting party will request the check from the ATS or their Zinc account. - Automated instructions are delivered to provide some personal details in a dynamic web form. - Zinc submits the request to our checking provider. - Zinc receives the results (digitally) and provides a signed digital report. - The candidate receives a notification to say the process is complete. ## Results of the check Zinc will display two distinct types of matches. ### High confidence These matches are dual identifier matches, meaning that both the name and date of birth identified and the same as the candidate's. ### Low confidence These matches only match on the candidate's full name. They are absent of a date of birth match as there may not have been one on the source. ![politically-exposed-persons-pep-check-2](https://storage.googleapis.com/public-fini-assets/zincwork_hc_images/politically-exposed-persons-pep-check-2.png) If you click into the matches provided, you will find further information on what has been found through the search with sources for your review. You can then review any matches on the candidate's report with the information provided from the search. It might be helpful to reach out to the candidate and ask for additional information. If you're happy with the result, mark the report as **Reviewed** once you have completed this process. ## How to interpret the results When running a PEP check, the results that you may expect vary in potential significance to your hiring process. To assist in interpretation of the result, we’ve identified how layers of these results are widely interpreted. ### High risk - Heads of state and government - Members of government or parliament (national and regional) - Heads of military, judiciary, and law enforcement - Board members of central banks - Top-ranking officials of political parties ### Medium/high risk - Senior officials of the military, judiciary, and law enforcement agencies - Senior officials of other state agencies and bodies and high-ranking civil servants - Senior members of religious groups - Ambassadors, consuls, and high commissioners - Senior management and board of directors of government-owned businesses and organisations ### Low risk - Mayors and members of local, country, city, and district assemblies - Senior members of international or larger-than-national organisations ## Questions? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your account manager, connect via live chat, or drop us an email for assistance with PEP checks. We're here to help!