A February 4 expose in Vice News finds that private list-checking service World-Check erroneously lists individuals and orgnizations, predominantly Muslim, as terrorists. The article confirms what charities have heard for years, that groups with no ties to terrorism are listed in the database, used by 300 government agencies and 49 of the 50 largest banks, fueling the de-risking phenomenon. Because banks have no legal obligation to tell customers why their accounts are being closed, and because World-Check binds its users to secrecy, de-banked entities have had no way of determining the source of their woes. Those that have been able to trace the problem find that there’s no clear path to successfully challenge an erroneous listing, according to the article.

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