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Custom lists: Screening

How to setup and use Custom lists in Screening

Updated over 8 months ago

With Custom lists it is possible to list names, bank accounts, countries and other information and screen persons and transactions against it.

How does setting up a Custom list look like

  1. Create a list

  2. Define schema of the list

  3. Defines usable screening fields in the list

  4. Add records to the list

  5. Start using Custom list in Screening Flows and creates Alerts filter

Step 1: Creating a list

Custom lists feature enables the system to screen and monitor persons and transactions against customisable multiple lists. Custom lists can be found in Analyst Toolbox → Custom lists.

To add a new Custom list, click on a “+ New list”.

Every new list must contain List name, Description and Code.

  • List name helps to separate one list from others.

  • Description provides more detailed information about certain list.

  • Code helps to reference list in monitoring scenarios or clearance rules (Custom list Code can contain letters, numbers and underscores).

Once List name, Description and Code are typed in click on “Add” and Custom list will be created.

When Custom list is added it will be visible in Custom lists table.

Step 2: Defining list’s schema

Once a list is created and general information is inputted, fields can be added (⚙ List settings → Fields in the list).

These fields have three functions:

  1. They define the schema used when adding list records

  2. Data you upload is validated against the schema (e.g. text cannot be uploaded, when a field is defined as NUMBERS type)

  3. They are used for defining usable fields, which can be later used either in monitoring or screening

❗️ Existing schema can only be partially edited (Display name and Visibility boxes can be reconfigured) once Usable fields are defined or when first records are added, so make sure schema is defined correctly before. New fields can be added, but fields can only be removed from empty Custom lists.

Adding fields

  1. Write down Display name (descriptive name for a field, for example, First name, Date of birth, etc.)

  2. Indicate Field name (name of the attribute, for example, first_name, dob, address, etc.)

    1. We highly recommend you follow Salv’s recommended field naming conventions as this will help to maintain your clearance rules better in the future. For example, date of birth should always be dob, in case of name try to split names into first_name and last_name. The list of recommended field names can be found here: person fields and transaction fields.

  3. Select Input type from the dropdown menu. There are five input types you can choose from: STRING, DATE, NUMBER, OBJECT and ENUM.

    1. When OBJECT type is selected, multiple nested fields can be defined, for example, when adding Address field, country, street_address or postal_code can be added as 1 level JSON attribute. Display name, field name and input type (STRING, NUMBER or DATE) have to be defined for OBJECT fields.

      Values of these fields are shown under Address field in the list view (comma separated) and in matches.

    2. When ENUM type is selected, multiple (at least 2) dropdown options can be defined. When “Multiple values” is selected, multiple values from the dropdown can be selected when creating a record.

  4. You can select whether you want to make this field visible in matches or in the list.

    1. In matches - when selected, field name and value will be shown in matches information when an alert is generated.

    2. In list - when selected, field column will be shown in the list view. In the example below, First name field is selected not be shown in the list view.

  5. Toggling Multiple values on allows adding several values for the same data field, which are then saved as an array, for example - adding several bank account numbers.

  6. You can define which Schema fields are required and which are optional. A record cannot be saved if a required field is not filed.

Step 3: Defining usable fields

When at least one schema field is added you are all set to add usable fields. Usable fields allow you to reference Custom list values in screening and monitoring. Configuring usable fields for screening and monitoring is done separately.

When adding a usable screening field you have to define following properties:

  • Name - a human readable name

  • Code - must be unique per list. Can contain letters, numbers and underscores. Can be referenced when writing clearance rules.

  • Field(s) - that can be later used in screening, for example first_name last_name or bank_accounts[].

    • You have to explicitly specify which list fields nested in the OBJECT field you would like to use, e.g address by itself is not a valid usable field, but address.street is.

    • Multiple list fields can be selected per one usable field when needed, e.g. first_name last_name, account_number sort_code, etc. Creating a usable field with multiple list fields has following restrictions:

      • List fields defined to have Multiple values can not be combined with any other list field, e.g bank_accounts[] can not be combined with any other list field

      • You can combine all list fields that are not nested inside an OBJECT field, e.g first_name last_name can be combined with each other

      • You can combine all list fields that are nested inside a single OBJECT field, e.g shareholders[].first_name shareholders[].last_name can be combined with each other

  • Type - if the usable field references names, then we support better fuzzy matching algorithms based on name type. Therefore it is possible to select between Individual person name and Legal person name. For example first_name last_name would have a type of Individual person name but company_name would have Legal person name. For other values you can leave this option empty.

  • Type rule - if you store both types of names in the same field (for example you have John Doe or Random Inc under the field name ) you can set a jmespath rule that checks its type from another field. If you don’t do that, and have selected Type from previous selection, you can leave it empty.

For example if you have field entity_type that has values of LEGAL and INDIVIDUAL then a valid type rule would look like this:

( 
(entity_type == 'INDIVIDUAL' && 'INDIVIDUAL_PERSON_NAME' )
  || (entity_type == 'LEGAL' && 'LEGAL_PERSON_NAME') 
  || ('UNDEFINED') 
)

Example fields:

Step 4: Adding records

4.1 Adding record through UI

To add a new record first select the Custom list and then click “ + New record”.

Add new record tab corresponds to schema setup in live environment. Once information is added a new record can be saved.

4.2 Adding records through API

New records to the Custom list can be added via API, however before sending data about new records via API, Schema and Usable fields should be already in place. More technical information on how to add a record via API can be found here.

4.3 Adding records using a CSV file

List records can also be batch uploaded using CSV files by users with CUSTOMER_ADMIN an ANALYST roles, the upload is done through the UI, the upload is done through the UI (Data upload → selecting “Custom list record” for the file that is being uploaded).

Currently there is one mandatory data field - list_code.

More information about adding Custom list records through UI using a CSV file can be found here.

Step 5: Start using Custom list in Screening Flows and create Alerts filter

In order to use a Custom list in Screening, you can simply the list in a Screening Flow. Learn more here.

It is possible to set a Screening Alerts filter to show alerts generated by a certain Custom list. To do so, select the Custom list under "Alert" + "Matched list type" + "is". More information on custom filters can be found here.

Related Articles
Person data requirements
Custom lists: Monitoring
Entity linking by custom attributes
How to implement Custom lists in Monitoring scenarios
Screening Flows
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