BBVA on Global Compliance with World-Check

For a quarter of a century, World-Check has helped banks around the world safeguard financial systems and meet evolving compliance demands. In this special series, hear directly from banking professionals about how trusted data empowers them to detect financial crime, manage reputational risk, and build customer trust. Discover how World-Check continues to support the banking sector with global intelligence and cutting-edge technology. Maria Rodriguez from BBVA shares how World-Check supports the bank’s mission to uphold global compliance standards. With increasing regulatory complexity and evolving sanctions, she sees World-Check as a vital partner in balancing technology, AI, and human expertise—helping BBVA safeguard the integrity of the financial system across 25+ countries.

My name is Evita Situma. I work at First National Bankas the Head of Compliance in Financial Crimefor the commercial banking segment. What keeps me passionate about my jobis being able to pull the threads and the story togetherfrom examining data information sources, both internal and external,and forming a picture of what's happening in financial crime.The nature of preventing money laundering is that money launderers want to concealwhat they're doing with the money, where they obtained it,and for what purpose they're using it. I like the challengeof being able to take stuff that seems random,pulling it together, and creating that pictureand saying that this is what the risk is, how do we deal with it,and how do we solve for it? That's my passion.The big challenge is always going to be about databecause, as tech evolves, information moves very quickly,and data challenges mean data integrity quality.How reliable are your sources of data? Is it purely what you know internallyabout your client or your product, versus what you might see externally,and how that informs whether you're going to tolerate the risksor terminate the risks? Those challenges are always difficultconversations because they evolve daily, if it's not hourly,because the risks change at the rate of a tick,the way we move these days. The World-Check has been the best friendI didn't know I needed throughout my time in AML.I've known it from the days of Thomson Reuters.It's been very helpful in the sense that even when we arenot necessarily 100 percent sure we've got it right,this is a conversation that can be had. We can collaborate and say that we thinkthis is the right thing that we're looking at,or no, we're not looking at the right thing.I appreciate the way they support business,and the way they support their clients in making surethat when they say that they can identify a riskand help you mitigate it, they mean what they say, and they show up.I think it's an age-old adage. I think what most AML people talk aboutis mapping of networks, network analytics, relationship management, et cetera,and joining patterns. That is such a great opportunityto leverage, and thankfully, AI is a blessingand a curse in that sense. However, from where the World-Checkand LSEG are and where you guys are heading,I'm excited to see what's going to come out.A lot of the developments are being developedin collaboration with us as clients, and it's excitingto see the thought processes in terms of mapping thingslike illicit financial flows or trade-based money launderingand the like. That's what I'm excited about.It's hard to describe a World-Check in one wordbecause there have been many things over the many years.Happy 25th anniversary. I would say World-Check is confidentin who they are, what they do, how they deliver,and how they show up. That confidence gives us peace and claritywhen we know what we're doing when we're working with World-Check.What I'd like to see in the next 25 years is World-Check's own AI assistants.We joke about chatbots and things like that.However, it's purely because of the interactivenessthat you get from an AI assistant, sometimes it makes life a bit easierat two o'clock in the morning, when you can't call peopleand say: "I have this problem." That sort of thinking I've seen.I've heard of pockets, which might be just rumors,but it'll be exciting to see if that does come through.I have no doubts that Work-Check and LSEG can deliver on innovation,because you guys have gone from strength to strength through the years.

I trust that when I need any information from World-Check, it's going to be up to date and provided with the most advanced technologies.

World-Check helps you meet your due diligence obligations and identify potential financial criminal activity with information from reputable public domain sources. Our data will also help you address your Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) monitoring requirements. You can access over 4m records, delivered in a highly structured format.

Reliable intelligence

We follow the most stringent guidelines for research methodology and inclusion criteria – applying rigorous quality control.

Subject matter expertise

Our analysts monitor areas based on their subject matter expertise, supplemented with local language capabilities. Many have worked with state and federal governments.

Up-to-date information

With research centres across five continents, we provide around-the-clock monitoring of sanction lists, regulatory and enforcement lists, as well as thousands of reliable media sources, so you have accurate and up-to-date information.

Targeted screening

Data contains hundreds of specific keywords and over 60 risk topics that help you filter and drill down for more focused screening and reduce false positives.

In-depth search

Linking of associated subjects helps you search and identify criminal networks and associations.

Easy integration

With data presented in a highly structured format, it’s simple to absorb into your screening processes using common formats across a variety of software platforms.