Pre-commitment screening of a specific transaction — funds, structure, parties, and jurisdictional exposure assessed against AML/CTF frameworks and current sanctions designations. Designed to identify exposure before commitment, not reconstruct it after.
A transaction's compliance risk is not fully captured by screening its parties in isolation. The structure of the transaction, the jurisdictions it touches, the path of funds, and the parties at each step collectively determine the exposure. Transaction Screening assesses the transaction as a whole — before commitment — and produces a documented assessment that supports your compliance decision.
Pre-transaction assessment is the discipline of identifying red flags before they become regulatory problems. Vessel history, flag state compliance, ownership structures, jurisdictional exposure, and the parties on both sides of the transaction are assessed against AML/CTF frameworks informed by FATF standards and the sanctions designations current at the time of assessment.
Assessment of the transaction's structure — the entities on each side, the intermediate parties, the jurisdictions involved, and the contractual architecture. Structural indicators associated with sanctions evasion, layering, or beneficial ownership concealment are the primary subject of this assessment.
For transactions where the source of funds is a relevant compliance consideration — vessel purchases, charter deposits, management fee structures, and financing arrangements — IPS assesses the available information against source-of-funds risk indicators and documents the assessment.
Identification of the jurisdictions involved in the transaction and their current sanctions status, AML/CTF risk classification, and regulatory standing. Jurisdictional exposure changes as sanctions regimes evolve — an assessment conducted against current designations is the only reliable basis for a compliance decision.
The Transaction Screening output is a structured assessment report — the transaction described, the risk indicators assessed, the jurisdictions reviewed, the parties screened, and the IPS findings. The report is formatted for compliance records and documents the basis of your pre-commitment compliance decision.
Transaction Screening engagements are initiated on a per-transaction basis. Contact IPS before commitment — the value of a pre-commitment assessment is precisely that it precedes the point at which remediation becomes difficult.