Screening engines

A screening runs on one of two engines. Both take the same request and return the same response: the same properties, the same list names and list types, the same role and relationship types. Switching engine is a change of one property, not of your integration.

Choosing the engine

{
  "engine": "tic",
  "subjects": [
    { "reference": "cust-1001", "name": "Anna Exempelsson", "birthDate": "1975-04-12" }
  ]
}

Leave engine out, or send it empty, for the default engine. Any other value than trapets or tic returns 400 with code invalid_engine.

Every screening records the engine it ran on: source on a search response, engine on a company or person screening and on each row of the history.

Matching with tic

Names are scored, not matched word by word. Each name of the subject is compared with every name of the list entry by spelling and sound, in any word order, with case and accents ignored. An entry does not need every word you send, so a full name with every given name still finds an entry listed under fewer names.

An entry is a hit when its score reaches 0.7. The score is the name score, raised when the birth date agrees (most for the same date) and lowered when it does not (most for a birth date years apart). A different birth date does not rule an entry out on its own: it takes a very close name to stay a hit. An entry that lists the subject’s identity number is always a hit, whatever the name.

Request options:

• countries works as described in How matching works: an entry registered only to other countries is left out, and an entry with no country data is kept. An entry that lists the identity number is always kept.
• minimumNameMatchScore, with nameMatching Phonetic, leaves out hits whose name scores lower. It narrows the hits; it does not add entries below the 0.7 score.
• nameMatching makes no other difference: names are always scored by spelling and sound.
• fuzzyBirthDateMatching makes no difference: a nearby birth date always lowers the score less than a distant one.
• updatedAfter and minExpires make no difference.

Hits with tic

• hitRating is 5 when the entry lists the identity number, 4 when the name and the birth date (or the year of birth) agree, and 1 otherwise. Rating 2 is not used: countries filters entries but does not rate them.

• nameMatchScore is always present, and comment gives the score and what it is made of:

  Copy

  Score 0.93: name 0.68 (searched "Anna Exempelsson"); same date: 1975-04-12 / 1975-04-12

• identityNumber is present only when the entry lists the screened subject’s own identity number. Identity numbers of other people are never returned.

• sourceName and listType are the names in Lists, the short hit names UkSanctions, FSA and CKP included; every PEP, family member and close associate has sourceName TIC_PEP and listType PEP.

• A PEP has one role per kind of function in roles, with title and organization when the PEP holds one kind of function; title on the hit lists every title. countries is the country whose function it is (for an ambassador, the sending state).

• Family members and close associates are on the list as persons. Screening a PEP’s spouse returns a hit for the spouse, with listType PEP. Its relationships names the PEP, with relationshipType what the PEP is to them (Spouse, Parent, Child, Sibling, FamilyMember or CloseAssociate) and the PEP’s functions in comment. They have no roles.

• externalId stays with the person or the list entry when the lists are updated, so decisions carry into later screenings.

• tier is not set. lastUpdatedUtc and listEntryUpdatedAtUtc are not set: a decision stays on the hit in later screenings.

Lists, details, test mode and billing with tic

• Lists. serviceScope takes the groups (SANCTION, PEP) and the list names in Lists. The names of the default engine’s lists are accepted for the same lists: PEP_Edge and ACURIS_PEP_NN screen TIC_PEP, Instant_EU_Sanctions screens EU_GLOBAL and HMTreasury screens UK_Sanction. A list the engine does not hold screens nothing, and servicesQueried shows what was screened.
• Hit details are shown for as long as the screening is stored, not only for 24 hours.
• Test mode screens the live lists, free of charge, with the order marked [TEST]. Test screenings are still compared only with other test screenings.
• Billing. Every screening is billed per screened person or company, a search too. Plan a company screening with ?engine=tic gives the price.
• Reuse. A screening within 24 hours is reused only for a request on the same engine.