> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Screening coverage and sources
> Every source Coverbase Screening checks: the sanctions and watchlists, the PEP roles in scope, criminal and legal records, adverse media categories, monitoring cadence, and the options Coverbase configures on request.
For AI agents: a documentation index is available at [https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt](https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt). This page is also available in markdown by appending .md to the URL.
This guide is part of the [User Guides](/user-guides/overview) collection. It is the reference for what [Coverbase Screening](/products/coverbase-screening) checks. For reading and deciding a match, and for the settings page, see the [Sanctions screening guide](/user-guides/sanctions-screening).
The mistake people most often make is reading an empty match list as "screened against everything". A screen only covers the sources switched on for your organization when it ran. Adverse media is off by default, and people are only screened if you opt them in. Each run in a vendor's history lists the sources it covered, so check them before you write "no sanctions exposure" into an assessment.
## The five sources
| Source | What it covers | Default |
| - | - | - |
| [Sanctions](#sanctions-and-watchlists) | Government sanctions and designation lists, plus FATF jurisdiction ratings | On |
| [PEP](#politically-exposed-persons) | Politically exposed persons, and their relatives and close associates | On |
| [Criminal](#criminal-and-legal) | Law enforcement and terror watchlists, and records of criminal charges | On |
| [Legal](#criminal-and-legal) | Civil and criminal litigation, lawsuits and judgments | On |
| [Adverse media](#adverse-media) | Negative news, scored against the risk categories you choose | Off |
An administrator switches sources on and off under **Configuration → Monitoring → Screening**, in **What we screen against**. A source switched off there never runs: not on the schedule, not at intake, and not in an ad hoc screen.
## Sanctions and watchlists
A sanctions match means the subject appears to be named on a list of individuals or entities whose assets are frozen, who are barred from certain transactions, or who are otherwise restricted. Sanctions lists are refreshed from their sources at least daily, and the key lists as often as every six hours.
The table lists the principal sanctions and watchlist sources. The catalog changes as lists are added, so ask your Coverbase account team for the complete current list for your workspace.
### International
| List | Issued by |
| - | - |
| UN Security Council Consolidated List | United Nations Security Council |
| High risk jurisdictions (blacklist) | Financial Action Task Force (FATF) |
| Jurisdictions under increased monitoring (greylist) | Financial Action Task Force (FATF) |
The FATF lists rate the subject's country, not the subject.
### Americas
| List | Issued by |
| - | - |
| Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List | U.S. Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) |
| Consolidated Sanctions List (Non-SDN) | U.S. Treasury, OFAC |
| Consolidated Screening List (13 lists, including the SDN, Non-SDN and BIS lists) | U.S. International Trade Administration |
| Denied Persons List | U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) |
| Most Wanted | U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) |
| Hijack Suspects List | U.S. government |
| Terrorist List, including domestic terrorists | U.S. government |
| Consolidated Canadian Autonomous Sanctions List, covering the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA), the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Regulations (JVCFOR) and the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (FACFOA) | Government of Canada |
| Listed Terrorist Entities | Public Safety Canada |
| Regulations Implementing the United Nations Resolutions on the Suppression of Terrorism (RIUNRST, SOR/2001-360) | Government of Canada |
| Public Registry of Persons and Entities linked to acts of Terrorism and its Financing (RePET) | Argentina, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights |
### Europe
| List | Issued by |
| - | - |
| Consolidated financial sanctions list | European Union, European External Action Service (EEAS) |
| Consolidated sanctions list | UK HM Treasury |
| National asset freezing list, combined with the EU and UN lists | France, Direction générale du Trésor |
| Sanctions and embargoes list (SESAM) | Switzerland, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) |
| National Sanctions List (National Terrorist List) | Belgium, Federal Public Service Finance |
| Blacklist | Ukraine, State Financial Monitoring Service |
| List of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities | Belarus, State Security Committee |
| Domestic lists under UN Resolution 1373 | Central Bank of Armenia |
| Domestic list of sanctioned persons | Azerbaijan |
### Asia Pacific
| List | Issued by |
| - | - |
| Consolidated Sanctions List | Australia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) |
| Listed Terrorist Organisations | Australia, National Security |
| Domestic Sanctions List | Central Bank of Bangladesh |
A match shows the list it came from. Follow the source link in the match before you decide it: the list entry is what tells you what the match means.
## Politically exposed persons
A PEP is someone who holds, or held within the lookback period, a prominent public function whose role gives elevated corruption, bribery, sanctions evasion or money laundering risk. PEP data draws on public office records and sources including OpenSanctions, Rulers.org and EveryPolitician, normalized to one inclusion standard.
**In scope by default**
| Category | Includes |
| - | - |
| National government | Heads of state and government, cabinet members, national legislators, senior judges and prosecutors, central bank leadership |
| Security and diplomacy | Senior military, police and intelligence leadership, ambassadors and senior diplomats |
| Intergovernmental organizations | Senior leadership and governing officers |
| Regional government | Governors, premiers and other regional heads of government, and regional executives and legislators |
| Local government | Mayors, local executives, and council members whose role carries real authority over public funds, procurement or licensing |
| State owned enterprises and public agencies | Senior executives, board members and other senior decision makers |
| Political parties | Senior party leaders and other officials with material political influence |
| Relatives and close associates | Spouses, partners, children, parents, siblings, known business associates and nominees of a PEP, where the relationship is supported by evidence. They are classified separately from office holders. |
**Out of scope by default:** ordinary civil servants, junior staff of public agencies and state owned enterprises, administrative staff, and people who are politically adjacent but hold no qualifying office.
**How long someone stays a PEP after leaving office**
| Position | Lookback after leaving office |
| - | - |
| National and intergovernmental positions | 20 years |
| All other qualifying positions | 5 years |
The default scope is broader than some regulatory definitions. A PEP match is a reason to look, not a legal conclusion.
## Criminal and legal
**Criminal** covers law enforcement and terror watchlists, and records of criminal charges and involvement in criminal activity.
**Legal** covers involvement in civil or criminal litigation, including lawsuits and judgments. It is useful context on legal and reputational risk, and it produces more matches to review than sanctions does.
## Adverse media
Adverse media is negative news coverage that records financial crime or reputational risk that has not reached a sanctions or PEP list. Articles come from over 200,000 news outlets, broadcasters, professional journals and blogs, in more than 140 languages, and new coverage is picked up within minutes.
Each article is scored for sentiment and for the risk categories switched on for your organization. Only an article in a category you switched on raises a match.
Adverse media is the highest volume and lowest precision source, and it is off by default. Turn it on once the rest of screening is running cleanly, and start with a narrow category list. Every category you add lengthens the queue.
**Standard categories.** These are on the settings page under **Adverse media categories**. The first six are selected by default.
| Category | Covers | Default |
| - | - | - |
| **Sanctions** | Sanctions evasion, embargo breaches, or trading with designated parties | On |
| **Money laundering** | Concealing or moving suspected criminal proceeds | On |
| **Fraud, bribery & corruption** | Fraud, bribery, corruption, embezzlement, kickbacks, or abuse of position | On |
| **Terror funding** | Raising, moving or providing funds for terrorism | On |
| **Cybercrime** | Hacking, ransomware, phishing, data theft and other technology enabled crime | On |
| **Tax evasion** | Concealed income, false returns, offshore evasion, or VAT fraud | On |
| **Organised crime** | Cartel, gang, racketeering or other criminal enterprise involvement | Off |
| **Human trafficking** | Forced labor, sex trafficking, or other exploitation of people | Off |
| **Narcotics** | Production, trafficking or distribution of controlled substances | Off |
| **Smuggling** | Illegal cross border movement of goods, customs evasion, or contraband | Off |
| **Insider trading** | Trading or tipping on material non public information | Off |
| **Weapons** | Illegal arms sales, arms trafficking, or embargo violations | Off |
**Further categories, on request.** The wider catalog includes sector specific categories such as cryptocurrency, casinos, real estate, fine art, rare gems and metals, money service businesses, lending, luxury vehicles, non profits and terrorism, and non financial categories such as assault and property damage. They are not on the settings page. If your program needs one, ask your Coverbase account team.
An **Ad hoc screen** can pick its own categories and set an **Adverse Media Lookback (days)** for that one screen.
## Monitoring cadence
A monitored vendor is re-screened on a cadence set per source.
| Source | Default cadence |
| - | - |
| Sanctions | Daily |
| PEP | Monthly |
| Adverse media | Monthly |
The available cadences are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, twice a year and annually. Sanctions can also be re-screened whenever a monitored list publishes a change. A cadence can never be more frequent than the cap for your workspace, which by default matches the cadences above.
Coverbase decides who is monitored; the cadence comes from the profile group a risk level is assigned to. To monitor one risk level more or less often than the default, ask your Coverbase account team to set up a profile group with that cadence, then pick it for the risk level in the monitoring table on the settings page. The [settings section of the screening guide](/user-guides/sanctions-screening#settings) shows where.
## Options Coverbase configures on request
These are set up by Coverbase for your workspace, not on the settings page. Some carry an additional charge. Contact your Coverbase account team or [support@coverbase.ai](mailto:support@coverbase.ai).
| Option | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Monitoring cadence by risk level** | A profile group with its own cadence, so critical vendors can be screened more often than the rest. See [Monitoring cadence](#monitoring-cadence). |
| **Further adverse media categories** | Categories from the wider catalog beyond the standard 12. |
| **Custom lists** | Your own internal watchlists, such as a do not onboard list, screened alongside the standard sources. Matches appear under the source you choose, with the list name as their source. Enterprise plans only. |
| **Match scoring** | How heavily each identifying detail (name, country, registration number, date of birth) counts toward the identity confidence score. |
| **Repeated alert suppression** | Whether a monitored vendor that matches the same record again is raised again. A balanced setting is on by default, so a materially new listing is always raised. |
| **Name mention filtering for adverse media** | Labels or filters articles that only mention a similar name rather than involving the subject. |
Changes to scoring and suppression change what reaches your queue, so agree them with your compliance owner before asking for them.
## What screening does not cover
Some outside-in checks live elsewhere in Coverbase:
| You want | Where it is |
| - | - |
| Whether the company is legally registered and active | [Corporate registrations](/user-guides/corporate-registrations) |
| Who runs the vendor, and news about those people | [People intelligence](/user-guides/people-intelligence) |
| Breaches, regulator actions and news events about a vendor | [Radar signals](/user-guides/radar-signals) |
| Leaked credentials and lookalike domains | [Dark web monitoring](/user-guides/dark-web-monitoring) |
## Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Fix |
| - | - |
| A run in a vendor's history does not list adverse media | Adverse media is off for your organization. An administrator turns it on under **What we screen against**. |
| A news story about a vendor did not raise a match | Check that its category is switched on under **Adverse media categories**. An article only raises a match in a category you selected. |
| You need a list that is not in this catalog | Ask your Coverbase account team. The catalog is a summary, and some lists can be added as a custom list. |
| You need sanctions checked more often for some vendors | Ask Coverbase for a profile group with a tighter cadence, then pick it for that risk level. |
| An ad hoc screen will not let you pick a source | The source is switched off for your organization. A source switched off in the settings cannot be picked anywhere. |
## Related
What screening does, and how it fits into intake and monitoring.
Reading a match, deciding it, and configuring the policy.
The directors and officers who can be screened alongside the vendor.
The legal entity and registration number a screen is matched on.
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