Signal Cases is where you review and act on adverse media findings that EFI's automated monitoring system has flagged against your counterparties. Each signal represents a cluster of related news articles — grouped by topic and institution — that may indicate financial crime risk. Navigate here from the Signals count on a counterparty row, or from Go to signals in the actions menu of an institution's report — both appear when signals are enabled for your counterparties. The cards of the Signals Report also open this page.
Understanding Signals
Signals are automatically generated by EFI's adverse media clustering system, which continuously monitors news sources for mentions of your counterparties. When the system finds articles that suggest potential financial crime involvement, it groups them into a topic cluster and creates a signal case for your review.
Each signal is categorized using standard financial crime typologies — for example, FRD (Fraud), MLA (Money Laundering), SMG (Smuggling), or TER (Terrorist Related). The category is assigned automatically by AI analysis and may need manual confirmation during your review.
By default, the list hides completed signals so you can focus on open items. Uncheck Exclude completed signals in the filter panel to see everything.
Filtering and Finding Signals
Click Show Filters to open the filter panel. You can narrow the list by Institution, Title, Description, Status, Closure Reason, Sequence Number, Assigned To, Category Confirmed, Label, Category, and a Created After / Created Before date range. The Only show my signals checkbox is useful when your team shares a large queue and you want to focus on your assignments.
Two filters are worth calling out. Category Confirmed shows which signals a reviewer has already verified, so you can find work that still needs a human decision. Closure Reason includes an Exclude Automatically Closed option, which hides the signals EFI closed on its own while keeping the ones your team closed.
The Category filter is a multi-select list of financial crime typologies. Select one or more categories to focus on specific risk areas — for example, filtering to just MLA and FRD during a money laundering review.
The Search by ID box next to Show Filters finds a signal by its # number regardless of the Open/Closed filters. The toolbar also offers Export and, once signals are ticked, Assign (N) / assign yourself and Merge Signals (N selected) — these work as on the Signals tab, described under Assigning Signals, Merging Signals and Exporting Signals in the My Signals guide.
Reviewing a Signal
Click the magnifying glass icon on any row to open the full signal detail view. The detail page has two main areas: the signal description on the left and the details sidebar on the right.
AI-Generated Summary
The description contains an AI-generated analysis that synthesizes all articles in the cluster into a structured summary covering:
- Event Overview — what happened
- Parties Involved — which institutions and authorities are named
- Timeline and Development — when events occurred and how they progressed
- Financial and Regulatory Impact — monetary consequences and regulatory implications
- Current Status and Resolution — whether the matter is ongoing, settled or resolved
- Risk Assessment Implications — how this affects the institution's risk profile
- Sources and Credibility — source tier ratings and publication dates
Each article in the cluster is listed individually with its source, tier rating, publication date, category, involvement level (primary or secondary), sentiment, a direct link to the original article and its own short summary; View Cached Version appears where EFI holds a copy. Above ten articles the list collapses into an expandable block, and a collapsible Topic Information block under the summary gives the topic's first-seen and last-updated dates, article count and primary category.
A note at the bottom reminds you that the signal was automatically generated and may contain errors — always verify critical information against the original sources.
Details Sidebar
The sidebar shows key metadata: the linked institution, assigned category, labels, status, close reason, resolution time, assignee, who created the signal, when it was last updated, article count, when its articles were enriched, and the Signal ID. Click any editable field to update it — for example, click "unassigned" next to Assigned to to assign the signal to a team member, or use the - assign yourself link to take it on directly.
Signals don't carry a priority or a due date. To judge how urgent a finding is, read the category alongside each article's source tier, involvement and sentiment — see the Signals guide for how to weigh those together.
Working a Signal
The typical workflow for handling a signal:
- Review the summary — read the AI-generated analysis and check the linked articles
- Confirm the category — if the AI-assigned category is correct, click Confirm Category to timestamp your verification. If it's wrong, update the category in the sidebar first
- Add comments — use the rich text editor below the description to document your findings, analysis, or escalation rationale; Add comment or Cmd+Enter posts it
- Attach files — drag and drop supporting documents into the Files area, or click to browse
- Close the signal — once your review is complete, click Close Signal and select a close reason. The button stays disabled until the signal is assigned and its category confirmed; if either is missing, the page tells you which. With a comment typed the button reads Comment & Close Signal and posts the comment first; a closed signal shows Reopen instead
Download Audit PDF exports the signal and its activity log for compliance records, and Enrich Articles fetches the full text of any article not yet cached and regenerates the description from it.
Navigating from Entities
When viewing signal cases for one counterparty (via the Signals count on the counterparties list or Go to signals on its report), a Back to Entities button appears at the top and the heading names the counterparty. The list is automatically filtered to show only signals for that entity, and Clear Filters keeps that scope. The toolbar also offers Scan URL and Lookup for that counterparty — see the Signals guide. This is useful when investigating a specific counterparty's adverse media history.