Adverse media refers to negative news or information about an individual or entity. Typically, adverse media can include articles, press releases, and social media posts that highlight unethical, illegal, or damaging behaviour by an organisation or entity. Adverse media can impact an entity's reputation and financial standing, making it important for financial institutions to utilise when assessing risk and making business decisions.

Adverse media is often used as part of the onboarding process, to screen entities for potential financial crime and reputational risk. Financial institutions can use adverse media screening to identify entities that are involved in illegal activities, such as money laundering, fraud, and corruption. By screening for adverse media, financial institutions can reduce their risk exposure and protect themselves from potential reputation damage.

By staying informed and up-to-date on adverse media, often through the use of alerts as part of customer in-life monitoring, financial institutions can make more informed decisions, reduce risk exposure, and protect their reputation.

Adverse media screening can form an important part of KYC checks when onboarding a customer.

Perpetual KYC is a continuous process of monitoring a customer's behaviour, financial standing, and reputation, throughout the life of the customer. This helps financial institutions to stay up-to-date on any changes that may affect their risk exposure. By including adverse media screening in their Perpetual KYC process, financial institutions can minimise their risk exposure and protect their reputation.

Overall, adverse media plays an important role in the KYC and Perpetual KYC process.