Configure a Watchlist Report

Overview

You can configure your Watchlist Report using the Reports Template Editor. Learn how to view and edit the following settings:

• Template name: The internal-facing name of your Watchlist Report template.
• Sources: The source lists you want to check for matches. Subscribe to a category of lists, or individual lists.
• Name matching: How closely the name of your end user must match an entity in a source list.
• Birthdate matching: How closely the birthdate of your end user must match an entity in a source list.
• Country matching: How to use country-related information about your end user to filter matches.
• Continuous monitoring: Whether your Watchlist Report is set to run on a recurring interval.

Open the Editor

To open the Editor for a Watchlist Report:

1. In the Dashboard, navigate to Reports > Templates.
2. Select a template where Type = Watchlist.

Template name

The name of the Template appears on the Reports > Templates page. You can change it to whatever makes most sense to your organization.

Edit template name

To edit the name of your Watchlist Report template:

1. In the Editor, select the Configuration tab.
2. Under Template name, edit the text.
3. In the upper corner, click Save Report Template.

Sources

Sources are the lists you want to check for matches. Sources are shown in two tabs.

Category subscriptions

Category subscriptions make it easy to apply a group of related lists to your Report template. If your template is subscribed to a category, your template will check for matches in all source lists in that category. For example, OFAC is a category, and OFAC is made up of numerous lists all from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Individual lists

The Individual Lists tab lets you subscribe to one list at a time. If you don't want to subscribe to all lists in a category, use Individual Lists to select specific source lists within the category.

Edit sources

To edit the sources for your Watchlist Report:

1. In the Editor, select the Configuration tab.
2. In the upper corner of the Sources section, click Edit.
3. Make your selections.
   • To add an item, select the checkbox.
   • To remove an item, unselect the checkbox.
     
   • If you want to change from using a category subscription, to using only some of the lists in that category subscription: first unselect the category subscription, then select the individual lists.
4. Click Apply.
5. In the upper corner, click Save Report Template.

Name matching

Name matching settings let you decide how closely the name of your end user must match an entity in a source list in order to be considered a match. Depending on your use case and needs, you may require a more exact match, or want to accept less exact matches.

The name matching options are:

• Exact: Match on exact name and AKAs.
• Strict (Recommended): Match on everything in the Exact option, plus subsets of a full name and initials.
• Tolerant: Match on everything in the Strict option, plus Equivalent names. Also allows some typos.
• Custom: Set your own custom match profile.

For a deeper dive into what these options mean, and more definitions of terminology used, please see our Reports Name Match Requirements article.

Edit name matching

To edit name matching settings for your Watchlist Report:

1. In the Editor, select the Configuration tab.
2. Under Name matching, select one of the options.
   
3. In the upper corner, click Save Report Template.

Birthdate matching

Birthdate matching settings let you decide how closely the birthdate of your end user must match an entity in a source list in order to be considered a match. 

The birthdate matching options are:

• Exact date: matches on the exact date and year that is input into the report.
• Within +/- 1 year from birth year (default setting): matches on the year +/- 1 year to allow for additional catches.

For a deeper dive into what these options mean, and more examples, please see our Reports Birthday Matching article.

Edit birthdate matching

To edit birthdate matching settings for your Watchlist Report:

1. In the Editor, select the Configuration tab.
2. Under Birthdate matching, select one of the options.
   
3. In the upper corner, click Save Report Template.

Country matching

Country matching settings let you decide how to use country-related information about your end user to match against an entity in a source list.

Country matching can help you reduce false positive matches—i.e. matching against an entity in a source list when it's not the same person. Country matching will only filter out matches if:

• You provide country information for an end user;
• The potential match in a source list has country information; AND
• The two pieces of country information do not match.

If you do not provide country information, or an entity in a source list does not have country information, then any potential match will not be filtered by country.

You can decide to match against one or more of these country-related fields in a source list:

• Birthplace: Country where an individual was born.
• Citizenship: Country where an individual is registered as a citizen. One can hold citizenship in more than one country, and it can change over one's lifetime.
• Nationality: Country where an individual or their parents are born. An individual's nationality remains the same throughout their lifetime, as it is inherited or innate.
• Residency: Country where an individual resides.

Edit country matching

To edit country matching settings for your Watchlist Report:

1. In the Editor, select the Configuration tab.
2. Under Country matching, select one of the options.
3. In the upper corner, click Save Report Template.

Continuous Monitoring

The Continuous monitoring tab displays your current continuous monitoring settings, including the cadence at which the report is run.

Edit continuous monitoring

Continuous monitoring settings are currently view-only. To update these settings, please contact your customer support manager or contact the Persona support team.