Understanding screening results

Every entity screening result comes down to a risk band, a possible PEP flag, and a separate network line. This reference explains what each one means and the rules ComplyWise applies when building the score.

The risk bands

Band	Meaning
Clear	No confirmed hits on the subject or its owners
Elevated	Lower-severity findings, such as watchlist entries, on the subject or its ownership chain
High	Serious findings in the ownership chain, or an accumulation of findings; includes the sanctioned-owner cap described below
Severe	The subject itself is directly designated on a sanctions list

"Severe · unconfirmed"

A result showing Severe · unconfirmed means the screen found one or more candidate matches that you have not reviewed yet. It is a prompt, not a verdict: the subject is treated at the worst-case band until a reviewer signs the run off on the report page as confirmed or dismissed. Dismissing the candidates as false positives clears the verdict entirely. See Review and clear hits.

What goes into the score, and what never does

The inherent risk score combines:

Hits on the subject itself.
Hits on the parties that own or control it: individual UBOs and directors, plus corporate owners (followed through the ownership chain), weighted by ownership percentage.

Two things are deliberately excluded:

PEP status never raises the score. A politically exposed person is shown as a separate PEP flag, a signal that enhanced due diligence applies. It is a different question from sanctions risk, so ComplyWise never folds it into the band.
Network hits never change the score. Counterparties (vendors, partners, and the other parties in the Relationships register) are screened and their findings are shown on the network line, but they are never summed into the entity's own band. A flagged counterparty is a relationship to review, not a property of your entity.

The sanctioned-owner rule

Ownership matters, but it is not the same as being designated yourself:

A sanctioned owner or UBO caps the entity at High. The entity carries serious risk through its ownership, and the band says so.
Only the entity's own direct designation on a sanctions list produces Severe. Severe is reserved for the subject itself being listed, so you can always tell the two situations apart at a glance.

Sanctions findings are always treated at the highest severity; this cannot be weakened in your screening rules.

Where the results show up

The Entities & Individuals register shows the band, hit count, and top source list per party.
The KYB Manager shows the inherent-risk band on the risk score card, a network line beneath it, and per-party risk pills in the ownership register.
The full report page and its PDF export carry the complete evidence; see Review and clear hits.