BankingLegal & Compliance
Customer screening. Cleared, not assumed.
Extracts identity data from onboarding documents and screens every new customer against sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists before an account opens — every match cited to the specific list and record. Built for banks and fintechs onboarding hundreds of customers a week.
15 cited fields per screening. Built on Sphere AI Foundry.
kyc_screening — applicant #KYC-50291LIVE
00:00Ingest → ID + proof of address, applicant M. Torresread
00:03Sanctions check → OFAC SDN list, no matchpassed
00:05PEP check → possible match, senior political figureflagged
00:08Adverse media → no material findingspassed
00:09Disposition → Route to compliance officer, 1 match to clearrouted
review time 9sfields cited 15/15officer sign-off required
Organizations around the world trust us
Built on Sphere AI Foundry·Screened against live watchlists·21 years, 300+ clients
Manual screening doesn't scale with onboarding volume
A single customer screening means a compliance analyst extracting identity details from ID documents, checking them against sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists one at a time, and writing up the disposition by hand. At low volume that's manageable. Across hundreds of new accounts a week, it's the reason onboarding backs up and a real match slips through in the noise of false positives.
86%
faster first-pass screening vs. manual list checks
15
fields extracted & cited per screening
100%
of matches traceable to the specific list and record
Applicant in, cited disposition out
Four steps, every one logged and citable back to the watchlist and the record.
01
Ingest
Reads identity documents directly from your systems
Government ID, proof of address, and any prior KYC file — read from your onboarding platform or document repository. No separate upload step.
Source document
KYC-50291 — M. Torres, new account application
02
Match against watchlists
Every identity checked against live watchlists
Name, date of birth, and nationality — each checked against sanctions (OFAC, UN, EU), PEP, and adverse-media sources, not a single static list.
Example query
"Does this applicant match a name on the OFAC SDN list?"
03
Cite every match
No match without a citation
Each match links back to the exact watchlist, record, and confidence score — the citation travels with the finding, not as a separate lookup.
Cited finding
Name and date of birth match a listed senior political figure — requires enhanced due diligence before clearing.
cited to OFAC SDN list, record #SDN-8821304
Classify & route
One disposition, one consolidated match list
The agent returns Clear, Clear-with-EDD, or Hold, with a consolidated match list routed to the compliance officer for sign-off before the account opens.
Disposition
ClearClear-with-EDD ✓Hold
15 fields, every one cited
What the agent extracts from every screening it runs.
Screening summary & disposition
Identity verification & document match
Sanctions list match (OFAC, UN, EU)
PEP match & risk classification
Adverse-media findings
Beneficial-ownership check (where applicable)
Prior KYC history on this customer
Enhanced due diligence recommendation
Consolidated match list
Compliance officer review checklist
Typical inputs
What the agent reads, and what it connects to.
Documents
- Government-issued ID and proof of address
- Beneficial-ownership documentation (for entities)
- Prior KYC or account-opening file
- Current sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media source lists
Systems
- Onboarding / account-opening platform
- Core banking or KYC platform
- Document repository or imaging system
Is this the right fit?
Built for volume — not a one-off application.
✓ Works best for
- Banks and fintechs onboarding 100+ customers a week
- Institutions standardizing screening against a fixed set of watchlists
- Compliance wanting every match traceable to the source list
Too small for
- A single VIP application a compliance officer can screen faster than configuring the match
- Replacing compliance officer judgment on a final EDD or hold decision
- Jurisdictions or customer types with no applicable watchlist to screen against
Grounded in the list, not a black box
Compliance-first, the same standard every Sphere agent is held to.
The agent requires complete identity documentation before it will return a disposition, and every screening sits between application and account opening — never past it. A compliance officer confirms every Clear-with-EDD or Hold before the account is opened or declined.
Matches reference the specific watchlist, record, and match confidence directly — the same audit-trail standard every Sphere agent on the Foundry is held to.
Prerequisites complete ID
Complete identity documentation is required before a disposition is returned.
Human review required
A compliance officer confirms every Clear-with-EDD or Hold before the account is opened or declined — never fully autonomous.
Regulatory grounding list-cited
Matches reference the specific watchlist, record, and match confidence directly in every screening.
Foundation Sphere AI Foundry
Access controls and audit trail configured here carry forward to every other agent you deploy.
Frequently asked
Does the KYC & Sanctions Screening Agent decide whether to open an account?
No. It screens the applicant and cites every match for a compliance officer to review — the officer makes the final Clear, EDD, or Hold decision. Nothing opens without that sign-off.
What watchlists does it screen against?
OFAC, UN, and EU sanctions lists, PEP databases, and adverse-media sources out of the box. Additional lists can be added during onboarding.
How does it integrate with our onboarding platform?
It reads directly from your onboarding or core banking platform, or a document repository — no separate upload step required. Integration scope is confirmed during deployment planning.
Is every match traceable to the source list?
Yes. Every match cites the specific watchlist, record, and confidence score it came from — there is no match without a citation back to the source.
How is this different from a generic watchlist screening tool?
It extracts identity data from the actual onboarding documents and screens in one pass with full citation, rather than requiring a separate manual lookup. It runs on Sphere AI Foundry, so the access controls and audit trail configured here carry forward to other agents you deploy.
Hear from
our clientsHear from our clients
Lee Ebreo
VP of Engineering at Credit Ninja
These things would not have been achievable if we did not build our own in-house system and if we did not partner with Sphere to help us achieve our goals.
Selah Ben-Haim
VP of Engineering at Prominence Advisors
Our experience with Sphere and their team has been and continues to be fantastic. We keep throwing new projects at them, and they keep knocking them out of the park (including the rescue of a project that was previously bungled by another vendor).
Ben Crawford
Senior Product Manager at Enova Financial
I would expect to be delighted. It's been a really positive experience, working with Sphere, and I would expect you to have the same.
Mark Friedgan
CEO at CreditNinja
Sphere consistently prioritizes the needs of their clients, demonstrating both agility and teamwork. As an offshore team, they have been an integral part of our organization and we plan to continue growing with them.
René Pfitzner
Co-Founder at Experify
Sphere provided excellent full-stack development manpower to augment our team and help push our product forward. They are easy to work with, tech-savvy and proactive.
Bruce Burdick
Chief Information Officer at Integra Credit
We've been working with Sphere and its excellent consultants since our founding. I've found that they are true partners in the success of our business.
Jemal Swoboda
CEO at Dabble
The resources and developers that Sphere Software provides are skilled and have the required technical expertise, but more importantly, they have helped us build a culture of excellence within our team.
Arthur Tretyak
Founder and CEO at IntegraCredit
With Sphere, we were able to migrate in half the time it would take to train an additional FTE… and for a fraction of the cost. Our experience with Sphere has been exceptional.
Lee Ebreo
VP of Engineering at Credit Ninja
These things would not have been achievable if we did not build our own in-house system and if we did not partner with Sphere to help us achieve our goals.
Selah Ben-Haim
VP of Engineering at Prominence Advisors
Our experience with Sphere and their team has been and continues to be fantastic. We keep throwing new projects at them, and they keep knocking them out of the park (including the rescue of a project that was previously bungled by another vendor).
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See it on your own applicants
Bring three real onboarding applications to the demo. We'll show the screening output live — matches, citations, and the disposition, on your own documents.
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