The best adverse media screening software and companies in 2025

If you’ve found this article, the chances are you’re looking for:

• Adverse media screening software to reduce your reliance on manual processes when onboarding and monitoring customers.
• A way to quickly compare the top available solutions.
• How to assess top adverse media and anti-money laundering (AML) vendors’ capabilities.

This article summarizes seven adverse media screening software vendors, listing their key strengths and features.

<H2> Why invest in adverse media screening? 

Because of the insights adverse media can provide, screening for it forms an essential part of firms’ customer due diligence (CDD) procedures, alongside other types of screening such as sanctions screening and politically exposed person (PEP) screening. 

Adverse media can give you an in-depth view of your risk exposure by surfacing links your customers have to financial crimes such as money laundering or terrorist financing, as well as predicate offenses like drug trafficking and organized crime. 

Adverse media screening requires looking at unstructured or unverified data, meaning you can gain information about your customers that may not yet be reflected in official sources. This gives you a holistic view of your AML risks. 

“To insulate your firm from sanctions risks, you must have robust but flexible ongoing customer due diligence, drawing on the best risk information available. This means not only up-to-date sanctions and PEP lists but also adverse media information that can help identify high-risk counterparties not yet designated by governments.”

Andrew Davies, Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, ComplyAdvantage 

Adverse media screening software: 4 features to look for

When evaluating adverse media screening vendors, there are several features your compliance team should prioritize:

1. An entity-level view of information. Implemented at scale without the right strategy, adverse media can create a lot of noise for compliance analysts. You should ensure the solution you choose has an entity-level view of key risks, grouping articles rather than simply displaying large volumes of news like a search engine. 
2. Predicate crime-aligned taxonomies. Similarly, does the solution tag adverse media information to be viewed in a way that will resonate with regulators? This should include categories aligned with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), such as narcotics and cybercrime, alongside those related to key regulatory regimes. For example, the 22 predicate offenses listed in the European Union’s 6AMLD include fraud, environmental crime, smuggling, and corruption. 
3. Dynamic risk ratings. Properly deployed, adverse media screening should operate as a core, integrated part of the wider anti-money laundering (AML) function. As a result, when customer risk profiles and ratings are adjusted, this should be reflected in the screening process. This may dictate, for example, how frequently an individual is screened, the level of fuzziness, and/or which topics are covered.
4. Operational efficiency. A ComplyAdvantage survey of 600 financial crime decision-makers showed employee morale related to adverse media screening is a key challenge. When asked about the primary benefit they’d seek in a new solution, 53 percent said, “increasing employee morale by removing repetitive, no-value alert remediation tasks.” From automating ongoing monitoring to curated insights, you should ensure they comprehensively assess where adverse media screening is currently proving time-consuming and how a new solution can solve those problems.

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Top adverse media screening software companies

1. ComplyAdvantage

The G2 GridⓇ for Anti-Money Laundering is a helpful way of measuring financial crime risk management vendors based on customer reviews. The G2 GridⓇ lists ComplyAdvantage as a leader in anti-money laundering.

Adverse Media Screening from ComplyAdvantage is a natural language processing (NLP)-based solution to help firms analyze AML/CFT risk through negative news at scale. It fulfills all recommendations from The Wolfsberg Group for negative news screening solutions and enables continuous monitoring, dramatically reducing backlog.

It’s based on four central capabilities:

• Structured screening: Instead of screening against an infinite stream of articles, it screens against structured, continuously updated entity and individual profiles. 
• Curated source lists: Financial crime experts collate specific source lists based on the reality of how criminals operate. 
• Contextual machine learning: The solution filters out non-adverse media hits with machine learning that’s trained on the specific context of adverse media. 
• FATF Taxonomy: It leverages an AML/CFT taxonomy that’s aligned with the regulations and guidance laid out by the FATF. 

Top ComplyAdvantage features:

Adverse Media Screening from ComplyAdvantage is ideally suited to a range of organizations, including banks, insurance companies, and payment providers, who need to shorten customer wait times, improve analyst productivity, and proactively manage compliance. 

The solution’s most important features include:

• Live profiles: Use live, structured profiles of rich, dynamic information from millions of data points to reduce onboarding times by as much as 80 percent. 
• Streamlined workflows: Focus on the alerts that matter most with automation for labor-intensive processes and custom risk profiles that are quick and easy to create.
• Automated KYC updates: Meet even advanced due diligence requirements with automated updates to continuously know your customer (KYC) without manual rescreening. 
• Tailored alerts: Customize your program based on the most relevant risks to your business and select source lists based on recommendations from the FATF and EU money laundering directives (MLDs).
• Hassle-free API integration: Integrate the feeds, systems of record, and applications you rely on into a single search function.
• Natural language processing (NLP): Use a contextual approach to filter out non-adverse media hits.

ComplyAdvantage’s Adverse Media Screening customers include Allianz, Currencycloud, Holvi, raisin, and Luno.

“We were looking for an efficient tool to perform adverse media checks. It had to be easy to use, with efficient support, and the price was also important. In-house, we consider the support we receive from ComplyAdvantage to be the best we have ever received. If you’re looking for an adverse media solution, it would be a mistake not to explore ComplyAdvantage’s proposed solution.” 

– Yves Declercq, AMLCO Compliance Officer, Allianz Benelux

2. Quantifind

As per Crunchbase, Quantifind provides “AI solutions for anti-money laundering and fraud detection.” Its investors include DNS Capital, Citi Ventures, US Venture Partners, and S&P Global. The firm is based in Palo Alto, with teams in various US cities, alongside Madrid and London.

3. Quantexa

Launched in 2016, Crunchbase describes Quantexa as a “decision intelligence platform for the banking, insurance, and government sectors.” Its investors include ABN AMRO Ventures, Dawn Capital, and Evolution Equity Partners.

4. Dow Jones Risk and Compliance

According to G2, Dow Jones Risk and Compliance is “a global provider of third-party risk management and regulatory compliance solutions.” The firm has operated since 1882, evolving from a news agency to offer a wider range of services.

5. Moody’s Analytics

Crunchbase describes Moody’s Analytics as providing “financial intelligence and analytical tools.” The firm was founded in 2008 and has expanded its field of operations since then, including through a number of acquisitions.

6. LexisNexis Risk Solutions

According to Crunchbase, LexisNexis Risk Solutions “provides information to assist customers in industry and government in assessing, predicting, and managing risk.” Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the firm has offices in 24 countries worldwide.

7. LSEG Data & Analytics (Previously Refinitiv)

According to Crunchbase, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is a “provider of financial markets data and infrastructure.” LSEG acquired Refinitiv in 2021, expanding its service offering.

How to measure success in adverse media screening

While every firm will have different objectives and challenges with their adverse media screening software, your success metrics should include:

• Protect your firm and your customers’ reputation. Adverse media can be an effective risk prevention tool, particularly for typologies like environmental crime, which are a growing focus for regulators.
• Faster decisions based on adverse media profiles thanks to information being collated effectively.
• Greater depth of risk knowledge, based on access to specialized blogs and newspapers alongside national, high-profile outlets.
• Adverse media screening that is fully aligned and integrated with wider AML processes, not operating as a standalone ‘nice to have.’

Choose AI-powered adverse media screening 

Advanced adverse media screening has become an essential part of effective compliance programs. In our latest global survey of compliance decision-makers, 71 percent of respondents said they currently use open-source intelligence (OSINT) to detect risk indicators not reflected in sanctions or PEP screening, while 29 percent said they were planning to in the future. 

Discover why leading firms choose ComplyAdvantage for adverse media screening, and book a demo to see the solution for yourself. ComplyAdvantage’s Mesh platform enables FIs to meet the challenges of reliability, recency, and relevance in adverse media – while reducing onboarding times by as much as 80 percent and allowing firms to welcome new customers at scale.