***
Skip to content

Political Connections

Client 360 / Customer 360 Relationships & Connections Business Connections Family Connections Political Connections Social Connections
Client 360 / Customer 360 Relationships & Connections Business Connections Family Connections Political Connections Social Connections
New to this diagram? Learn about the method: Use Case Tree · Use Case · Outcome

Political connections identify and analyze relationships to politically exposed persons (PEPs) and their family members and close associates to meet regulatory compliance requirements and mitigate corruption and money laundering risks. This use case addresses navigating varying PEP definitions across jurisdictions, identifying indirect connections through family and business relationships, tracking dynamic political positions over time, reducing false positives through contextual analysis, and maintaining continuous monitoring as political positions change.

The Challenge

Financial institutions and enterprises must navigate complex requirements:

  • Regulatory mandates — Global regulations (FATF, FinCEN, EU AML directives) require screening for political connections
  • Definition complexity — What constitutes a PEP varies by jurisdiction and changes over time
  • Indirect connections — Family members and close associates of PEPs pose similar risks
  • Dynamic relationships — Political positions change through elections, appointments, and resignations
  • False positives — Name matching alone creates excessive false positives requiring manual review
  • Data quality — PEP databases have varying quality, coverage, and update frequency
  • Cross-border complexity — Understanding foreign political structures and positions

Traditional screening approaches rely on periodic batch checks that miss real-time changes and indirect connections.

Why EKG is Required

Enterprise Knowledge Graphs provide sophisticated political connection analysis:

  • Relationship traversal — Automatically identify connections through family, business, or social relationships
  • Multi-hop analysis — Find indirect connections that may not be caught by direct screening
  • Temporal tracking — Maintain historical political positions and understand risk decay over time
  • Contextual risk scoring — Weight connections based on relationship strength, recency, and jurisdiction
  • Continuous monitoring — Real-time updates as political positions change or new connections are discovered
  • Enhanced entity resolution — Disambiguate individuals with similar names using relationship context
  • Integration with other risk factors — Combine political connections with transaction patterns and other red flags

Business Value

  • Regulatory compliance — Meet AML/KYC requirements for PEP screening and enhanced due diligence
  • Risk mitigation — Avoid corruption, bribery, and money laundering risks associated with political connections
  • Reputational protection — Prevent association with sanctioned or compromised political figures
  • Efficiency gains — Reduce false positives and manual review effort through contextual analysis
  • Proactive monitoring — Identify emerging risks before they become compliance violations
  • Audit trail — Maintain complete record of political connection screening and decisions

See also Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) for more detailed PEP screening processes.