24 Mar 2022

SPARK-Interfax launches new Business Reputation Assessment service

The SPARK-Interfax system has enhanced its features with an expanded business reputation analysis and early risk detection module that is based on data from the SCAN-Interfax reputation management and media analysis system.

The new Business Reputation Assessment service enables users to automatically monitor mentions in the media about user-defined lists of companies and persons and receive daily reports with risk-related news. The service significantly reduces the time spent on monitoring, analysis and assessment of the situation concerning a subject and eliminates the need to use several systems, as the information is accessible in a single window.

"Responding to the needs of our clients, we are perfecting our IT products that have already proven themselves on the market, bringing them together in the Interfax ecosystem. Adding the new service will make it possible to monitor brewing problems extremely promptly and accurately across the whole list of one's business partners thanks to the enriched data of our analytics system," SPARK-Interfax Executive Director Alexei Kobin said.

The updated features also compliment the standard capabilities of SPARK-Interfax to search for affiliations. The option to receive news about a group of companies and beneficiaries in one query makes it possible to identify concealed ties based on mentions in the news. Reports in the media do not guarantee certain affiliation, but they can serve as grounds for further investigation.

"Media monitoring is already an almost mandatory risk assessment tool for any security professional. The first signs of negative events at a company often appear in the media space. Risk analysis based on the media makes it possible to discover brewing problems before they turn into legal facts. Early detection of reputational risks, both one's own and those of suppliers and partners, makes it possible to minimize business losses, which is becoming even more important in the current economic environment," SCAN-Interfax Director of Development Yulia Mikhailova said, commenting on the launch of the new service.

Unlike the standard news module available in SPARK's basic features, the expanded module provides access to an archive of news about companies and persons that goes back five years rather than just one and allows users to refine search queries and receive monitoring data on their portfolio of counterparties by email.

The SCAN-Interfax mass media and social medial monitoring system on which the Business Reputation Assessment service is based aggregates more than 60,000 sources, including the most influential new agencies, newspapers, websites, blogs, regional media outlets, pay publications and exclusive newswires available only by subscription.

News items are scanned for 65 risk factors that in large part correspond to factors of credit and financial risk and potentially problematic subjects: economic and criminal offences, court proceedings and investigations, bank fraud, violations of business ethics, labor disputes, consumer complaints, exposure to sanctions, deterioration of financial position and potential bankruptcy, among others. An archive of publications dating back five years is available for every individual and legal entity.

The SPARK-Interfax system is the leader and widely recognized industry standard on the Russian market for credit risk assessment and business security services. The system is used to verify counterparties, and manage risks and receivables. According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, 71.5% of large and medium businesses use the SPARK system to verify the reliability of partners. SPARK has led the RAEX ranking for information and analytics systems for businesses by a wide margin for the past few years.