The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML-CFT) requires regulated professionals to implement due diligence measures commensurate with the level of risk. When a customer or, as the case may be, the customer’s beneficial owner is a politically exposed person (PEP), additional measures apply. At the same time, the relevant entities must comply with specific provisions related to international sanctions and the freezing of assets.
In practice, these obligations require compliance teams to monitor individuals, entities, or certain transactions using appropriate databases. Screening is carried out within this framework.
Compliance officers considering a change in tools quickly run into the same obstacle: the offerings seem similar on paper, but their operational impacts can be very different.
Comparing alternatives to AML-CFT screening softwareis therefore less about comparing features and more about evaluating several categories of solutions: international vendors, legacy solutions, next-generation RegTech, and in-house developments.
At AP Solutions IO, our experience with compliance issues leads us to prioritize an analysis based on several criteria: data coverage, false positives, integration, hosting, support, explainability, and operational overhead. A screening tool is also judged by how well it integrates into a real-world, documentable, and sustainable system.
| Criterion | International Publishers | Historical Solutions | Next-generation RegTech | In-house Development |
| Cover | Compare based on the data used | To be verified based on the offer | Depends, in particular, on data partnerships | To be established and maintained |
| False positives | Depends on the engine and the settings | Depends on the engine and the settings | Often at the heart of recent architectural designs | To be optimized internally |
| Deployment | Variable | Variable | SaaS, API, or hybrid, depending on the vendor | Integrated into the IS |
| Accommodations | Please check the contract | Please check the contract | Please check the contract | Depending on the chosen architecture |
| Explainability | Give it a try | Give it a try | Give it a try | Depends on the documentation |
| Internal load | Variable | Variable | Variable | Potentially significant |
Why are screening solutions so difficult to compare?
Sales materials often describe features, but buyers need to focus primarily on assessing their operational implications. Fuzzy logic, regular re-scoring, or an alert management interface are not enough to distinguish between two tools.
The features listed aren't enough to make a decision
The buyer needs to know how many alerts their team will actually have to analyze, how the engine responds to its own data, and how long it will take for a new dataset to be taken into account.
It must also be able to answer a key question: Will it be possible to determine why a match was detected and then ruled out?
A feature shown in a demo does not necessarily provide insight into the full range of its configuration options, its behavior in a real portfolio, or the workload it will generate on a daily basis.
Criteria that enable a meaningful comparison
A reliable selection framework must evaluate the coverage and recency of the datasets, the reduction of false positives, the deployment model, data localization, support,explainability, updates, and internal workload.
These are also the aspects we focused on when designing AP Scan, our screening solution. With AP Solutions IO, we aim to make inspections more customizable, easier to understand, and simpler to integrate into existing systems.
What alternatives are there to major international publishers?
No family should be ruled out on principle. The proper approach is to evaluate each proposal in light of the organization’s actual constraints.
International Publishers
They can offer extensive international coverage, strong credentials, and the ability to support organizations operating in multiple countries.
The relevant questions remain practical: What data is covered? Where is it processed? What media is available? What are the update schedules?
Historical Solutions
Some solutions have a significant installed base and extensive experience with compliance processes. Their age is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage in and of itself.
Above all, it is important to review their current architecture, integration capabilities, configuration, maintenance, and the quality of the traceability they provide.
Next-Generation RegTech
Recent RegTech solutions have often been designed for more open and interconnected environments, with deployment models such as SaaS, via APIs, or using a hybrid architecture.
AP Solutions IO aligns with this approach, offering a suite of solutions that covers screening, risk assessment, transaction monitoring, and filtering. All of our solutions are available as SaaS and via API, with an open, no-code architecture designed to facilitate their integration into existing IT systems.
For data coverage, AP Solutions IO relies in particular on partnerships with Dow Jones and ION Analytics to provide comprehensive, global coverage.
In-house development
Developing your own system can provide a high degree of control over configuration and architecture, provided that the engine, its rules, and its updates are properly documented.
The trade-off is the need to maintain data models, reconciliation rules, interfaces, and documentation. The decision therefore depends on the technical and compliance resources available over the long term.
What criteria should be used to compare two screening solutions— AML-CFT ?
Comprehensiveness and timeliness of the datasets
The scope of coverage corresponds to the scope of the data analyzed: sanctions, asset freezes, PEP, immediate family members, and individuals known to be closely associated with them, as well as country risks or reputational information as needed.
"Freshness" refers to the time between when information changes and when it is reflected in the tool. The key question, then, is: How is the data updated, and how quickly can the engine use it?
Reducing False Positives
A false positive is an apparent match that is ultimately ruled out after analysis. The number of false positives has a direct impact on the workload of compliance teams, but reducing this number must not compromise the quality of detection.
At AP Solutions IO, we’ve focused on achieving this balance. TheAP Scan engine utilizes more than 90 configuration criteria and can reduce false positives by up to 98%, depending on the configuration and use case.
Our article on false positives and ways to reduce them explains these trade-offs in detail.
Deployment and Integration Efforts
SaaS can reduce the need to set up and operate dedicated infrastructure, but that doesn't mean no integration or configuration is required.
An API allows you to call the engine from an existing application. With AP Solutions IO, our SaaS and full-API architecture can operate as a portal, via API, or in a hybrid configuration, allowing us to tailor the deployment to the customer’s technical environment.
Hosting and the Legal Framework Governing the Data
The issue is not limited to the country listed by the publisher: Where is the data stored and processed, by which service providers, and under what contractual terms?
For financial entities subject to DORA, which has been in effect since January 17, 2025, contractual arrangements relating to ICT services must be recorded in an information register. DORA also sets forth contractual requirements concerning, among other things, the location of processing, subcontracting, data return, and access rights.
A SaaS screening solution used by an entity falling within the scope of DORA may therefore be subject to these risk management requirements related to ICT service providers.
Hosting in France is not a general requirement for the web GDPR. However, it can be a choice that reflects sovereignty and control over data. AP Solutions IO hosts its solutions and the data it processes in France, in accordance with our commitment to security and transparency.
Support and Explainability
Beyond language, it is important to consider the support team’s level of expertise, its availability, and its escalation procedures.AP Solutions IO’s support is available in French and English, while our solutions are available in French, English, and Spanish.
Explainability deserves the same attention. It refers to the ability to understand and reconstruct the factors that led to a detection or an alert.
This is a core principle ofAP Solutions IO’s technology. Our Glass Box Augmented Intelligence aims to produce results that are explainable, traceable, and auditable, rather than an opaque decision that is impossible to justify.
Is housing in France a key factor?
It may be an important decision-making criterion, but it should not be presented as a general regulatory requirement.
The GDPR allows for certain data transfers outside the European Union and the European Economic Area when they are governed by the established safeguards. The challenge, therefore, is to ensure control over the data processing chain, data processors, any transfers, and contractual safeguards.
Hosting in France can simplify certain location-related trade-offs and help meet a goal of sovereignty. However, it does not, on its own, say anything about the quality of the engine or the data used.
Questions to Ask a Publisher
- Where is the data processed and stored?
- Which subcontractors are involved, and in which countries?
- What safeguards are in place for any data transfers?
- What are the conditions for reversibility and restitution?
- What traceability, audit, and security mechanisms are in place?
When should you switch to a different screening solution?
Change becomes necessary when the current system creates a long-term problem: a disproportionate number of alerts, overly rigid configuration, complex integration, insufficient traceability, high operating costs, or the end of support.
Conversely, a system that works, remains under control, and provides a basis for justifying the checks performed should not be replaced without a clear operational reason.
Migration also involves costs:
- data recovery;
- validation of the new settings;
- transition management;
- team training;
- continuity of the audit trail.
It may therefore be best to start by reviewing the thresholds, the quality of the input data, and the alert triggering procedures.
How does AP Solutions IO measure up against the comparison criteria?
AP Solutions IO is a French RegTech company founded by experts in banking and financial compliance who have been active in the market for over fifteen years. Our suite includes AP Scan for screening, AP Scoring for risk assessment, AP Monitoring for transaction monitoring, and AP Filter for filtering related specifically to international sanctions and embargoes.
For coverage, we rely primarily on Dow Jones and ION Analytics. When it comes to false positives, AP Scan combines a configurable fuzzy logic system with more than 90 criteria, achieving a reduction of up to 98% depending on the context of use.
Our solutions are available as SaaS and full API, with hybrid operation and no-code configuration. The data is hosted in France.
Finally, our Glass Box Augmented Intelligence solution placesexplainability, traceability, and auditability at the heart of the system. The goal is not to replace the compliance officer’s judgment, but to provide them with a tool whose operation they can understand and document.
To evaluate these criteria in light of your volumes and integration requirements, you can consult with our teams and evaluate the solution using use cases representative of your business.
