1Why Point-in-Time Isn't Enough
Most organisations conduct vendor and counterparty assessments at onboarding and then revisit them annually — if they revisit them at all. This creates a dangerous gap.
Sanctions designations, regulatory actions, adverse media events, and corporate changes happen continuously. An entity that was clean at onboarding may be sanctioned six months later. Annual reviews catch this at best 12 months late. At worst, they miss it entirely.
Regulators increasingly expect continuous or near-continuous monitoring, not periodic snapshots. The technology now exists to deliver this without prohibitive cost.
An annual review cycle means your average exposure window to a new risk event is 6 months.
2Building Your Monitoring Framework
An effective portfolio monitoring programme has four pillars:
- Risk tiering: Categorise your portfolio by risk level. Tier 1 (highest risk) entities get the most frequent monitoring. Not every entity needs daily screening.
- Trigger-based rescreening: Beyond scheduled reviews, certain events should trigger immediate rescreening — sanctions list updates, adverse media alerts, material corporate changes.
- Defined escalation paths: When monitoring detects a change, who gets notified? What's the response timeline? Define these before you need them.
- Documentation & audit trail: Every screening event, finding, and decision must be recorded for regulatory review.
Risk tiering is the foundation. You can't monitor everything equally, but you can monitor everything appropriately.
3Setting Up Monitoring with Grep
Grep's continuous monitoring capability integrates directly into your portfolio management workflow:
- Upload your portfolio: Import your entity list with risk tier classifications
- Configure monitoring frequency: Set screening intervals by risk tier (daily, weekly, monthly)
- Define alert thresholds: Specify which finding types trigger immediate alerts vs. periodic review
- Set up notifications: Route alerts to the right team members based on risk type and severity
- Review and action: When findings surface, investigate directly within Grep's research environment
The entire setup typically takes less than an hour. Once configured, monitoring runs automatically.
Continuous monitoring doesn't require continuous manual effort. Configure once, monitor always.
4Measuring Monitoring Effectiveness
Track these metrics to ensure your monitoring programme is delivering value:
- Coverage rate: Percentage of portfolio under active monitoring (target: 100%)
- Detection latency: Average time between a risk event and your team's awareness (target: <24 hours for Tier 1)
- False positive rate: Percentage of alerts that require no action (track for tuning, not elimination)
- Resolution time: Average time from alert to documented decision
- Regulatory satisfaction: Examiner feedback on monitoring programme adequacy
You can't improve what you don't measure. These five metrics give you a clear picture of monitoring health.
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