Fuzzy matching and scoring enable compliance teams to identify potential sanctions and risk exposure when names, entities, or transaction data do not match exactly. In real-world screening environments, data is rarely clean or consistent. Variations in spelling, abbreviations, formatting, and data quality introduce complexity that exact matching cannot handle.

Within the Facctum platform, fuzzy matching and scoring support solutions such as Customer Screening, Payment Screening, and Transaction Monitoring, helping organisations balance detection accuracy with operational efficiency.

Why Fuzzy Matching And Scoring Is Needed

Exact matching approaches are insufficient for modern sanctions screening and financial crime controls. Minor spelling differences, name ordering changes, abbreviations, and data entry inconsistencies can prevent legitimate matches from being detected.

Without fuzzy matching and scoring, organisations often compensate by widening match criteria, which increases false positives and overwhelms compliance teams with unnecessary alerts. A structured, probabilistic approach allows screening controls to remain effective without creating excessive operational noise.

How Fuzzy Matching And Scoring Works

Fuzzy matching evaluates the similarity between data elements rather than relying on exact equivalence. Names, identifiers, and attributes are compared using configurable algorithms that measure likeness across multiple dimensions.

Scoring logic assigns weighted values to these comparisons, producing a confidence score that reflects the likelihood of a true match. Thresholds can then be applied to determine whether activity proceeds, is flagged for review, or requires further investigation.

This approach allows screening decisions to be made consistently and transparently across real-time and batch workflows.

What Makes Facctum’s Approach Different

Facctum’s fuzzy matching and scoring capability is designed to be explainable and controllable. Matching behaviour, scoring weights, and thresholds can be configured to align with specific regulatory expectations and risk appetites.

Rather than treating fuzzy matching as a black box, Facctum enables compliance teams to understand how scores are generated and to adjust logic as data quality, sanctions regimes, and business models evolve.

Where Fuzzy Matching And Scoring Is Used

Fuzzy matching and scoring are applied across a range of compliance workflows, including:

• Sanctions and watchlist screening

• Customer onboarding and periodic rescreening

• Payment and transaction screening

• Entity and beneficial ownership screening

These use cases benefit from improved detection accuracy without disproportionate increases in alert volumes.

How Fuzzy Matching And Scoring Fits Into The Platform

Fuzzy matching and scoring integrate closely with other platform capabilities such as multi-script name matching, sanctions screening, watchlist management, and alert adjudication. It can be applied selectively based on risk level, data source, or workflow type.

This modular integration allows organisations to fine-tune screening controls without disrupting broader compliance operations.

Improve Screening Accuracy Without Excessive Noise

Learn how fuzzy matching and scoring can help balance detection accuracy and operational efficiency, speak with the Facctum team about how this capability integrates into your existing screening workflows.