SQA Consulting were engaged by a client to assist with the implementation of their new upgraded Screening Solution. In particular, they wanted advice and guidance concerning which screening threshold would work best for them.
Typically screening solution providers will provide a baseline threshold for their solution (if at all) but will require the client implementing the solution to assess this threshold and determine whether it needs to be amended to suit their risk appetite.
In theory, it is straightforward enough to run a sample customer file through the screening system at different thresholds. The likelihood is that at the different thresholds, different volumes of alerts will be generated – but what does this variance in the numbers of alerts generated mean? Fewer alerts implies fewer false positives but at what cost? What types of names will not match at the higher threshold?
For example:
The impact of the matching capability in scenarios where there is British English spellings compared to US English spelling:
• ORGANIZATION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INDUSTRIES V’s ORGANISATION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INDUSTRIES
Or if numbers are replaced with the written word – will the name still match:
• Little Connemara 1 Farm V’s Little Connemara One Farm
Or for Personal Names, what will be the impact on the matching capability if there is a different middle name included:
• ABBUD AL-ZUMAR V’s ABBUD Fred AL-ZUMAR
Multiple scenarios should be considered but these require a detailed test file and the knowledge to interpret the results.
