About Authenica
The challenge, the five principles, the six Suites, the obliged entities covered and the Union's eight countries.
AuthenicaDigital Trust for Africa
Financial compliance demands evidence.
Authenica supports financial institutions in knowing their customers, screening, assessing risk and keeping a traceable record of compliance decisions.
For financial institutions and obliged entities in the eight WAEMU States.
Customer file
CLT-2026-00417- Customer
- Natural person · demo customer
- Identity document
- Passport · read and checked
Screening result
- Lists queried
- 10
- Match
- 1 · PEP
- Confidence
CORROBORATED- Call identifier
req-7f3a…c21e
Decision
Enhanced due diligence · decided by the compliance officer, reason recorded.
Audit log
09:12File opened3f9a…e209:14Screening resolvedb71c…0909:26Reasoned decisionc4d0…5f
01The context
Inspectors no longer ask whether you screened. They ask you to prove it.
The BCEAO instructions of 18 March 2025 expect the information systems of reporting institutions to screen customers and transactions in real time, and to take sanctions list updates into account within 24 hours. A spreadsheet demonstrates neither.
A body of rules specific to the Union
The 2023 uniform AML/CFT/CPF law, BCEAO instructions, national asset-freeze lists: requirements and terminology that exist nowhere else.
Tools designed elsewhere
Built for other regulators, imported solutions often ignore the Union's PEPs and lists, and every adaptation becomes a project.
Evidence to rebuild
Scattered decisions, loose documents, partial traceability: proof of compliance is too often assembled the day before the inspection.
Source: BCEAO Instruction No. 001-03-2025.
02The platform
Six capabilities, one enforceable file
Each capability feeds the same customer file, the same audit trail and the same access rights.
- 01Know your customer
- Identity, supporting documents, representatives and beneficial owners for a legal entity, financial situation.
- 02Verifying and managing information
- Reading identity documents and checking their authenticity, updating the file and periodic review according to the risk level.
- 03Sanctions and PEP screening
- Sanctions and politically exposed persons lists, with each match qualified.
- 04Risk rating
- A rating configured by your institution, never a threshold imposed by the software.
- 05Decision management
- An identified officer decides and records the reason. The system prepares the file; it does not decide in your place.
- 06Traceability and auditability
- Every step is recorded in a chained trail and remains available, with its documents, during an inspection.
{
"requestId": "7f3a2c9e-…-c21e",
"matches": [{
"listType": "SANCTIONS",
"listName": "Liste consolidée du Conseil de sécurité",
"listVersion": "a0a0a0a0-0000-4000-8000-000000000001",
"targetLabel": "Zorbek NANDRAWELL",
"score": 0.97,
"confidence": "CORROBORATED",
"evidence": [
{ "field": "DATE_OF_BIRTH", "status": "MATCH" }
]
}],
"ignoredFields": []
}Each result carries the list, its version and the call identifier: evidence of what the list said on the day of screening.
03The operational journey
From the first document to the decision, everything leaves a trace
- 1
Know the customer
Identity, documents, representatives and beneficial owners.
KeptDocuments and beneficial owners
- 2
Screen
Sanctions and PEPs, each match qualified.
KeptList consulted and its version
- 3
Assess the risk
A rating configured by your institution.
KeptCriteria applied and their source
- 4
Decide
An identified officer decides, with a reason.
KeptAuthor, reason and timestamp
- 5
Trace
Every step recorded in a chained trail.
KeptFingerprint linked to the previous step
04Design principles
Five design principles at the core of the product
These rules apply to every Suite of the platform. They are shown to you piece by piece during the demo.
-
Audit trail
Events are recorded append-only and chained by fingerprint: modifying a past event becomes detectable. Viewing sensitive data is itself recorded.
-
Screening that cannot be bypassed
The platform is designed so that no onboarding can be decided without a resolved screening result. The rule sits in the core of the product, not in a screen.
-
Segregation of investigations
Investigations are isolated and protected row by row, to prevent any tipping-off of the customer concerned.
-
Human decision
Every regulatory decision carries an identified officer and a reason. No automatic closure, no action triggered by a score alone.
-
No invented regulatory obligation
Every rule and every parameter carries its source. An unvalidated source is never switched on in production.
05The Suites
Six Suites available, one common foundation
Every Suite shares the same customer master data, the same audit trail and the same access rights. Their status is published and kept up to date.
| Component | Scope | For | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| APISanctions and PEP screening | Ten lists served with their version, identity document reading. | IT, compliance officer | Available |
| Suite 2Customer due diligence | Know the customer, screen them, rate their risk and decide on onboarding, in a single, enforceable file. | Compliance officer, relationship managers and branches, IT for integration | Available |
| Suite 3Monitoring and case management | Detect unusual transactions, investigate them and document every step up to the decision. | Compliance analysts, FIU (CENTIF) liaison officer | Available |
| Suite 4Compliance and reporting | Prepare the reports expected by the CENTIF and the supervisor, in the required format. | CENTIF reporting officer, compliance officer | Available |
| Suite 1Governance and oversight | Management's view of the actual state of the framework, based on evidence rather than declarations. | Executive management, board of directors, compliance officer | Available |
| Suite 5Risk and internal control | Map the institution's ML/TF/PF risks and prove that controls work. | Internal control, risk management, internal audit | Available |
| Suite 6Regulatory monitoring | Track changes in Union and national texts, and measure their effect on the framework. | Compliance officer, legal counsel, management | Available |
More Suites will follow. Statuses are updated at every stage.
06Security and evidence
An audit trail you can verify
Each event is linked to the previous one by its SHA-256 fingerprint, computed here, in your browser. Change a past event and everything after it becomes invalid.
In plain terms: if someone changes a past decision, the platform flags it.
| No. | Event | Previous fingerprint | Fingerprint | Integrity |
|---|
Verification result
Chain intact.
What this chaining protects, and what it does not replace. It makes it possible to check, after the fact, that the history has not been rewritten. It does not replace access control, backups or an independent audit, and it is not a certification. See the Security page
07Sectors
Every obliged entity, one common framework
The WAEMU uniform AML/CFT/CPF law does not apply to banks alone. Authenica serves every entity subject to a due diligence obligation, whatever its size.
Financial institutions
- Banks and financial institutions
- Prove the effectiveness of your framework at every inspection, file by file, branch by branch.
- Microfinance institutions (SFD)
- Compliance on your scale: screening, customer file and risk rating without a dedicated team.
- E-money and payments
- Screen every customer and every agent in real time, against the Union's lists.
- Insurance and reinsurance
- Life and non-life insurers, brokers and agents: due diligence on policyholders and beneficiaries.
- Regional financial market
- Brokerage firms (SGI), asset managers, collective investment schemes and advisers: knowledge of investors and of the source of funds.
- Money transfer and currency exchange
- Transfer companies, sub-agents and bureaux de change: screening on every transaction.
- Fintechs and aggregators
- Present a documented screening framework from your licence application onwards.
- Postal financial services and deposit funds
- The same level of due diligence across a dense network of counters.
Designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs)
- Notaries
- Identify the parties and beneficial owners of every deed, and keep the evidence.
- Lawyers and legal professions
- Documented due diligence when you handle funds or transactions for your clients.
- Chartered accountants and statutory auditors
- Screen your clients and trace your due diligence in an enforceable file.
- Estate agents and property developers
- Check buyers, sellers and the source of funds before every transaction.
- Dealers in precious metals and stones
- Screening of suppliers and buyers, including in the gold sector.
- Casinos, gaming and betting
- Identify players above thresholds and spot unusual winnings, on site and online.
- Company service providers
- Registered office services, company formation, trusts: knowledge of beneficial owners.
- Dealers in high-value goods
- Car dealers, art and luxury goods dealers: due diligence on large payments.
- Non-profit organisations
- NGOs, associations and foundations: screening of donors, partners and beneficiaries.
Professional bodies and umbrella organisations
- Professional bodies
- Bar associations, chambers of notaries, institutes of chartered accountants: equip your members and monitor their level of compliance.
- Professional associations
- Associations of banks, MFIs, insurers or e-money issuers: a common framework offered to the whole profession.
Eight States, one framework
Benin · Burkina Faso · Côte d'Ivoire · Guinea-Bissau · Mali · Niger · Senegal · Togo
The uniform law and the BCEAO instructions apply in all eight States. National freezing lists are integrated State by State; the exact coverage is published in the API documentation.
08API and integrations
Documented integration, controlled data
The screening API is in service. Its documentation describes every field, every error and the exact coverage of the lists.
- Authentication
- Every call carries your key in the header
X-Api-Key, over HTTPS only. Without a valid key: response401. - Request and response
POST /api/v1/screenings: a name and a threshold set by your policy; every response carries arequestIdand the version of the list.- Lists served
- International sanctions, national freezing lists and PEP lists: ten lists to date, detailed list by list in the documentation.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
200 | Request processed. An empty list of matches means: no record above your threshold. |
400 | Invalid request: empty name or threshold outside 0 to 1. |
401 | API key missing, unknown or revoked. |
429 | Too many calls in the minute. |
503 | Reference data unavailable: never an empty response. |
curl -X POST https://api.authenica.tech/api/v1/screenings \
-H "X-Api-Key: $AUTHENICA_CLE_API" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"fullName":"Zorbek Nandrawell","scoreThreshold":0.85}'09Resources
Documents to download
The platform overview and the API technical sheet, to share with your management and your teams. Immediate access after a short form.
Technical sheet: screening API and security
The ten lists served, the request and the response, the operating rules, key management and the audit trail.
10Contact
Let's discuss your compliance challenges.
Our team will work with you to understand your organisation's needs and present the capabilities of the Authenica platform.
- Reply within one working dayA contact person gets back to you at the address you provide.
- A 30-minute conversationFocused on your institution and its constraints.
- A trialAn API evaluation key, to test on your own cases.
You can also write to it@authenica.tech.