A new company is to offer enhanced due diligence investigations and reports aimed at helping businesses avoid falling foul of increased regulations, and suffering reputational damage.

Searchlight is a spin-off from Oyster Consulting (Bermuda). The team will include experienced staff who have worked in the fields of law enforcement, investigation, compliance and fraud detection.

Henry Komansky is part of the team, and he explained the importance of knowing who you are dealing with in the business world, whether it be your own staff and directors, or clients and third-party vendors.

He said that need has never been higher because getting it wrong can result in substantial damage to a business’s brand and reputation.

Reputational damage is now widely viewed as the top risk-management concern globally. It has topped the list of a number of surveys in the past few years, including this years’s Aon PLC’s Global Risk Management Survey.

And with more stringent regulations being enacted, including anti-money laundering and antiterrorism financing regimes, and Bermuda’s Bribery and Corruption Act 2016, there is a need and demand for enhanced due diligence services, according to Mr Komansky.

“We see a need in the regulated industries and other areas,” he said. Mr Komansky is a consultant at Oyster, and he has extensive experience in business compliance and analysis, including working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He is confident Searchlight can provide the enhanced due diligence that is needed by drawing on the in-depth expertise of its team.

“We have got a lot of experience and we are excited about the product we offer. We have done enhanced due diligence work, and we want to set the standard.”

He explained that businesses need to conduct checks and be diligent about the staff they have in critical positions, about their clients, potential clients, and third-party vendors and consultants.

A certain level of information can be obtained through open source researching, but more comprehensive checks can be undertaken through other avenues, including closed sources.

Mr Komansky said the services being offered by Searchlight would be useful for a number of reasons, such as better protecting a business from involving itself in an individual or client that could present a reputational risk.

“There are lots of examples of business going under because of this [reputational damage].”

He said that it was important to know the background of directors, or potential directors, and of other leading officers within an organisation.

Searchlight will be able to offer considered opinions based on its analysis of a person or entity.

By having an enhanced due diligence regime “you set yourself up to a higher standard”, said Mr Komansky.

“You protect your business and you are more comfortable with the clients you are bringing in. It enables a business to go to the next level because it has a better handle on who its clients are.”

Oyster Consulting (Bermuda) has a website at http://www.oyster.bm/