About risk factors
Our risk models use risk factors to measure a product application's risk level.
You choose which risk factors to include in your risk model. There are different risk factors for individual profiles and company profiles.
When the risk model is applied to a profile's product application, the profile’s details are checked against the condition of every risk factor rule to see if any conditions match.
The result impacts the product application's total risk score as follows:
If a rule’s condition matches, the risk score for that rule is added to the product application's total risk score.
If the conditions for multiple rules match, the highest risk score is used.
If the profile data required to match conditions is missing, the risk score is undetermined and no risk score is applied to the product application's total risk score.
You can also group risk factors and apply the highest, lowest, mean, or sum of risk scores in the group to the total.
A product application's risk score is recalculated in any of the following circumstances:
A user changes any of the profile's details manually. For example, if a user updates the profile’s address, the risk score is recalculated even if the Country of residence and Postal code risk factors are not used in the risk model.
An automated check returns new/updated results for a profile. For example, a new PEPs match is found for the profile during ongoing monitoring. The risk score is recalculated any time a potential match is found.
A significant date for one of the profile details is reached. For example, on the date of the profile’s Date of birth, the profile’s age is automatically recalculated, and the Age risk factor is impacted. The risk score is only recalculated when the significant date impacts a risk factor used in the risk model.
If a change impacts one risk factor in the risk model, the profile is re-evaluated for all risk factors in the risk model.
About risk factor configuration
You choose which rules, conditions, and risk scores are used for each risk factor in your risk model.
For most conditions, you also provide a list, some text, or a number range to be matched with the profile’s data. Lists are always case-sensitive. Text is optionally case-sensitive.
For example, you might choose this for the Country of residence risk factor:
Rule | Conditions |
|---|---|
If an individual's country of residence is in Western Europe, add 0 to the product application risk score. | The profile's country is included in this list: Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, United Kingdom |
If an individual's country of residence is in North America, add 100 to the product application risk score. | The profile's country is included in this list: Canada, United States |
If an individual's country of residence is anywhere else, add 999 to the product application risk score. | The profile's country is not included in this list: Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States |
See the links in the Additional information section for lists of available risk factors, along with the conditions you can use for each one.
When you define your risk model, you can choose to make any of these risk factors required or non-required. To learn more, see the definition of Risk models in Introduction to Passfort's terms.
Associate risk scores are calculated differently from product application risk scores. For associate risk factor calculations, see Associate risk score calculation.