LSEG Risk Intelligence, the risk-focused arm of LSEG, has published global research showing that although nearly all compliance leaders trust their screening data, fewer than half believe they could readily hand a regulator a complete audit trail.

The study surveyed 600 senior risk and compliance decision-makers across EMEA, APAC and the United States. It found that 94% are confident their screening data is complete and up to date. Yet just 48% said producing a full audit trail would be very easy if a regulator challenged them, and 41% admitted their organisation is not entirely ready for heightened regulatory scrutiny.

LSEG Risk Intelligence calls this disconnect the “decision gap”. It describes the gap as the practical distance between spotting a potential risk and having the context, decision logic, accountability and evidence required to act on that risk and justify the action afterwards.

Manual checks remain a core part of the process. Some 93% of respondents cross-reference screening results with another source at least some of the time, and 69% do so frequently or always before acting. The research indicates that human review still matters in screening decisions, but that it also demands significant operational effort between the arrival of a risk signal and a decision that can be defended.

The findings also point to the need for strong data from both inside and outside the organisation. Internal data strength and availability were rated highly by 83% of respondents, and external reference data by 84%. However, only 76% rated both sources highly.

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