Politically Exposed Persons

calypso_rhapsody

I have just been informed by a solicitor (not mine) that their electronic check has flagged me as a Politically Exposed Person - which i am not.  It seems they are willing to send me the money due if i sign a declaration form to say that i am not a PEP.  But of more concern to me is how do i get this erroneous information changed? At present the solicitor has not even told me which supplier they did their check through ....   Initially i thought it must be a mix up as my first and last name are quite common but one of my middle names is not so and the combination of all four is i would think quite rare.  Does anyone have any advice?  I am assuming that such information will make opening future bank accounts etc more problematic - indeed i think i did read that some banks just won't deal with PEPs ....

fiisch

You can't.  Unfortunately you share a name with someone who is politically exposed (it can be a very vague reference, may not necessarily be a full match).
There are Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering requirements to validate that a potential match is not in fact a politically exposed person.  This can typically be done very easily via a desktop search (social media, Google etc.) - I used to do this for a popular car insurance provider.  However, it seems in this instance company want your guarantee that your not the politically exposed person in question - I wouldn't unduly worry about it to be honest...

dunstonh

I have just been informed by a solicitor (not mine) that their electronic check has flagged me as a Politically Exposed Person - which i am not.
It is very common to get false positives.  I just did one today where the person was "flagged" with about a dozen potential matches.     It is normal with popular names for that to happen.   However, each potential match has identifying information (such as full names, date of birth, address etc) which allow you to easily see and record that it is not a real match.

  It seems they are willing to send me the money due if i sign a declaration form to say that i am not a PEP.  
I have never seen that before.   I would say that is unusual but different firms have different views on how they assess risk.

But of more concern to me is how do i get this erroneous information changed?
It almost certainly is not erroneous.   It is almost certainly the solicitor not looking at the potential matches to eliminate them.  It maybe that their electronic check doesnt give them that detail. I know one electronic ID checker that charges extra if you want that detail.  Although the one we use does not.

Initially i thought it must be a mix up as my first and last name are quite common but one of my middle names is not so and the combination of all four is i would think quite rare. 
A lot of records are christian name and surname only.  However, even mismatched middle names would be flagged as potential matches.

Does anyone have any advice?  
Don't worry about it.   You almost certainly have a solicitor that is either being lazy or trying to avoid explicit costs they would have to pay because their chosen software has limitations.

 I am assuming that such information will make opening future bank accounts etc more problematic
Not at all.  

calypso_rhapsody

Thank you for the reassurance ... especially that it should not cause future issues.  I would not be at all surprised if the solicitor is being a bit lazy about it.

Thrugelmir

I'm sure that they'd be happy to conduct further checks if you were prepared to pay their time costs and disbursements incurred. Simple declaration protects them against any comeback. 

bostonerimus

Politically Exposed Person...my first thought was Alex Salmond.