Handling False Positives

Learn strategies to efficiently identify and manage false positive alerts while maintaining compliance.

What is a False Positive?

A false positive occurs when the AML system flags an entity or transaction as suspicious, but upon manual review, the alert is determined to be a legitimate, non-suspicious activity.

Common False Positive Causes

Strategies to Reduce False Positives

1. Improve Data Quality

Collect complete entity information to enable more precise matching:

{
  "fullName": "John Michael Smith",
  "dob": "1985-03-15",
  "nationalityCodes": ["US"],
  "documentNumber": "123456789"
}

2. Disable Fuzzy Matching

When exact matches are critical, disable fuzzy name matching:

{
  "fullName": "John Smith",
  "dob": "1985-03-15",
  "nationalityCodes": ["US"],
  "fuzzyNameMatch": false
}

3. Raise Match Threshold

Raise the minScoreThreshold parameter on screening requests to filter low-confidence matches:

{
  "fullName": "John Smith",
  "fuzzyNameMatch": true,
  "minScoreThreshold": 85
}

4. Configure Server-Side Rules

Contact your account team to configure custom suppression rules and allowlist management for your organization. This ensures known safe entities are handled consistently across all screening activity.

Documenting False Positives

When closing an alert as a false positive, record the rationale for audit purposes:

{
  "resolution": "FALSE_POSITIVE"
}

Continuous Improvement

Use analytics to identify patterns and reduce future false positives:

• Track false positive rate by entity type and source
• Identify top false positive triggers across your portfolio
• Work with your compliance team to refine thresholds
• Review and update allowlists quarterly