Politically Exposed Person

[Paddy1234]

Just asking for traffic really.
Has anyone come across this at all?
My OH has just been told by estate agents as we are in process of selling a house that he has come up as a PEP. Everything when they do a check is blank and the estate agents have never come across it before.
He is as normal as you get - in a normal job for past 30 years!

Union black balled member?

What does it mean? It's as though he doesn't exist?

Sorry, just looked it up:

Politically exposed persons (PEPs) are individuals whose prominent position in public life may make them vulnerable to corruption.

In relation to money laundering checks it can mean a councillor/politician etc.

It's someone ie Head of state who needs to be protected from corruption- in our case couldn't be further from our reality. He is also has no political leanings at all except for being a remainer

Yes, it'll mean he shares the same name as a pep or even a close relative of a pep. They should be able to confirm its a false match by verifying other info though- date of birth, nationality etc

He has a very boring job and not in public service role at all.

If he has a common name it can quite often bring up Canadian/Aussie politicians if that is any help!

As above, it’s a term used in financial services for money laundering checks. Checking the funds for the house purchase are legitimate.
Does he work for an organisation with links to specific countries that are prone to giving bribes for example?
Perhaps he has a very similar name to someone, they will need to do more verification I would imagine.

Agree with PPs, he will just have the same name as a PEP. Should be easy to resolve with a birth certificate or passport.

Yes, common place for AML checks, it means someone who is a political figure or someone through their position could be vulnerable to be bribed or corruption.
The issue though is the verification systems give lots of false positives I.e. anyone called ‘Boris Johnson’ will be identified as a possible PEP, the estate agents need to work out if your DH is the Boris Johnson’. Even if he is the ‘Boris Johnson’ they can still deal with him, they need to give his situation extra scrutiny. I’m surprised they don’t know this tbh.

Just done a name check - only one that comes up is an American computer guy.
Seriously his job would not bring him into contact with anything suspicious at all.
So the same name could only be the link but his relatively unusual

We do these checks at work sometimes...

Are any of his relatives local councillors/MPs?
Does he have a common name?
Has he been on the electoral roll/shared bank account with someone (ie old flat mate) that might be a PEP now?

Just thinking of all the possible reasons why it could have come up...

He didn't go to university so that signs off knowing or being affiliated with someone and all his life lived in one area.
Not a common name so I will keep googling.
Is it worth trying to investigate deeper or just accept it?

Will it affect the mortgage in anyway?

Are you ever planning to immigrate? (I have 2 friends who were refused long term US Visas...both never did anything dodgy in their lives)

Sometimes they do a fuzzy name search so his name may have come up if it is even similar to someone else's name.

They should now be doing diligence to confirm that he is not in fact a PEP and recording this in their files. It ought not to cause you not to get the mortgage or anything.

You may not find it by googling. Watchlists for PEPs and RCAs can be vast and hard to navigate.

I would follow up with the estate agents. If he is coming up as a PEP this means they are likely using a risk database so have a profile to compare him to. He should therefore be able to prove its not him with his passport and birth certificate.

Its unrealistic for them not to have a process for this - they'd be turning away every David Cameron and Alexander Johnson if that were the case.

Ask for the name of the database. Submit a data subject access request to see what they hold and check what it says.

Bit confused
Everything the EA checks comes up as a blank, you say... what are they checking?