Advising a small number of high-net-worth individuals on what institutional screening systems currently hold against their name — and what to do about it.
The distinction that matters is between what people say about you and what machines conclude about you.
The former can be managed through conventional means. The latter requires a different kind of attention entirely.
The compliance landscape has changed fundamentally. Wealth management decisions, capital introductions, banking relationships, and partnership discussions are now, in large part, governed by automated screening systems before a human being is involved at all.
These systems do not read context. They aggregate historical data points, apply risk weightings, and generate profiles — drawing on platforms including Bloomberg Professional, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, LexisNexis Diligence, World-Check, and Companies House registries.
For individuals of standing, the result is friction that appears without explanation, at precisely the wrong moment — during a transaction, a refinancing, or a partnership discussion.
Algorithms do not distinguish between what happened and what it meant. They do not consider circumstances. That gap — between institutional data and personal reality — is where this practice operates.
I conduct structured reviews of the institutional screening environment surrounding a named individual — identifying precisely what compliance officers, underwriters, and counterparties are currently seeing, how that data is being algorithmically weighted, and where the areas of exposure lie.
Where remediation is appropriate, I advise on it. Where it is not required, I say so. The engagement is always specific, never generic, and handled with the discretion the circumstances demand.
Patrick De Brun is a London-based adviser with fifteen years of experience operating at board level across Europe and Asia in international business and private client affairs.
His practice focuses on a discipline that sits outside the reach of conventional legal or PR advisory: the growing gap between what individuals know about themselves and what institutional automated systems conclude about them. It is a problem that has become considerably more consequential as KYC and AML frameworks have tightened across UK and international markets.
He advises a deliberately small number of individuals each month, working with the discretion that complex personal and commercial circumstances require.
Initial contact is by email. If the matter is appropriate for this practice, a response will follow within 48 hours. All communications are treated as strictly confidential. Engagements are subject to a mutual NDA as standard.
contact@patrickdebrun.com