Hafnia guards against sanctions risks with optimized customer screening

Hafnia is a shipping company specializing in the transportation of energy commodities such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. It combines a wealth of industry expertise with a modern fleet of over 200 vessels designed for efficient and safe transportation, making it the world’s largest operator of product and chemical tankers. 

With operations spanning key global routes, Hafnia serves a diverse customer base, including leading oil companies, trading houses, and energy sector participants.

The challenges of achieving efficient customer screening

Before working with ComplyAdvantage, Hafnia carried out customer screening with automated systems that were only partly effective, which presented challenges for the business. These included difficulties with obtaining ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) information from clients unaccustomed to providing it, and with getting real-time updates to customer data. 

We had previously experienced difficulty in getting people across the shipping industry to comply and ensure transparency, especially when it came to obtaining UBO data.

Sinclair Coghill, Manager – Compliance and Executive Projects, Hafnia

Given that Hafnia trades in over 100 countries, including high-risk jurisdictions, the company moved forward with implementing an improved adverse media and sanctions screening solution to strengthen its understanding of its risk exposure and protect the business from reputational damage. 

In its search for a customer screening partner, Hafnia prioritized ease of use, security, and the ability to access real-time data – factors that led the firm to partner with ComplyAdvantage. Consolidated sanctions and adverse media screening on a single platform, access to ongoing support, and the potential to develop a customized solution over time were also key in the decision-making process.

A significant improvement in results

ComplyAdvantage’s screening capabilities enhanced Hafnia’s risk detection, giving customer risk profiles a granular level of detail and uncovering new business insights.  

Since working with ComplyAdvantage, Hafnia has seen a major boost in productivity. A range of stakeholders can easily use the dedicated customer screening tool, which has reduced onboarding times, false positives, and time spent responding to alerts. 

With ComplyAdvantage, an initial screening search can be completed in as little as five minutes, which is a significant improvement compared to our previous process, which could take a day or more. 

Sinclair Coghill, Manager – Compliance and Executive Projects, Hafnia 

The importance of ongoing support 

Hafnia benefitted from a close working relationship with the ComplyAdvantage team, allowing the company to refine its screening solution based on results. It has continued to see a drop in false positives. Feedback across the company on ComplyAdvantage’s customer screening setup, functionality, and capability was positive. Stakeholders specifically praised the simplicity of the search functionality, the clear API documentation and supporting materials, and the responsiveness of the ComplyAdvantage team. 

Setup was super-easy, involving only a few 30-minute onboarding calls. The simplicity of the search functionality made it easy to onboard people and explain the necessity of client references and ongoing monitoring. 

Sinclair Coghill, Manager – Compliance and Executive Projects, Hafnia

Hafnia now looks forward to expanding its use of Mesh further, making full use of the available data, and turning compliance into a business advantage.