False positive in the financial crime and Anti-Money Laundering contexts is a ‘hit’ identified during the screening process as a possible red flag alert, but when reviewed by a Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) or compliance personnel of an obliged financial entity, is found not to be a match to a target named on a sanctions list, or to be a ‘non-event’.
False positives could be related to suspicious accounts, transactions, loan applications or claims of insurance. False positives are an issue in the financial system as they may slow down normal business procedures. Proper data-led AML (Anti-Money Laundering), KYC (Know Your Customer) and CFT (Combatting the Financing of Terrorism) systems such as those provided by Coinfirm significantly reduce false positives in the financial and cryptosystems.