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People Operations Specialist
Politically exposed persons checks
Safeguard your business with Zinc’s automated PEP checks. Reduce risk, make informed hiring decisions, and protect your organisation’s reputation from day one.
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What is a politically exposed persons (PEP) check?
A PEP check is a background screening designed to identify candidates who currently hold, or have previously held, positions of political significance, or roles that may increase their vulnerability to financial crime, outside influence, or reputational risk.
Zinc’s PEP checks help you clearly understand risk and make confident hiring decisions. With three risk level categories (low, medium, and high), you’ll always have the information you need — especially for regulated or international roles.
“With the compliance element, we’re 100% happy and confident in the security of our process now that we use Zinc.”
Becca Okyere
People Operations Manager
Key benefits of Zinc’s PEP checks
Mitigate risk
Complete visibility on candidate risk factors
Get ahead of issues by revealing PEP status before making key hiring decisions, and stay compliant with local regulations and global standards.
No guesswork
Detailed, actionable insights
Understand your candidate’s affiliations, get a clear picture of your risk level, and support safe, diverse international hiring. Make every decision with full context: no guesswork, just data.
Fast, real time results
Fully automated and time-saving
Zinc automatically checks hundreds of PEP sources and global databases, delivering instant, real-time results. Eliminate manual admin, speed up onboarding, and keep your compliance processes effortless.
How Zinc’s PEP checks work
Zinc’s PEP checks scan international databases to see if your candidate is at risk of exploitation for money laundering, bribery, or corruption — essential for regulated roles.
Upload your candidate’s details and request a PEP check through your Zinc dashboard.
Your candidate receives a notification to provide any additional details necessary.
Zinc scans media, government lists, and other international sources.
Access results in your Zinc dashboard or through your integrated ATS or HRIS.
FAQs for PEP checks
Find answers to common questions about our Politically Exposed Persons checks and processes.
What is a PEP check?
A politically exposed persons check (also known as a PEP check) identifies candidates who hold, or have previously held, positions of political significance that could increase their vulnerability to financial crime or outside influence. PEP checks generally run a candidate’s identity against multiple data sources including government lists, global websites, databases, and other media sources.
Why is a PEP check important?
A politically exposed persons check (or a PEP check) is important to help protect your business from reputational or financial harm. PEP checks identify candidates that might be vulnerable to outside influence or press, and keeps your organisation from misconduct or scandal.
How does Zinc identify potential politically exposed candidates?
Once your candidate has uploaded their proof of identification, Zinc automatically checks the candidate’s name, and date of birth where available, against a range of PEP sources.
What database is used to check for politically exposed people?
Zinc uses a database sourced from government lists, websites and other global media sources. Our system checks the candidate’s identity against a wide range of data to ensure complete screening coverage.
How often are results updated?
The PEP database is programatically updated daily.
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