What is Calculated Risk?
Calculated Risk is Strise's automated risk classification system. It automatically assigns a Calculated Risk Class (e.g., Low, Medium, High) to each entity in your portfolio — based on objective data and your team's own risk policy settings.
Instead of manually evaluating every customer from scratch, Strise scores each entity across multiple risk categories, adds up the points, and maps the total to a risk class. This gives your team a consistent, auditable, and policy-aligned risk picture across your entire portfolio.
You can find these settings under Settings > Calculated Risk in the app. Only team managers can change the settings.
💡 Hover over the Calculated Risk Class on any entity page to see exactly how the score was calculated.
How does it work?
Calculated Risk uses a point-based scoring model. Here's the basic flow:
When an entity is opened, Strise evaluates it across all configured risk categories.
Each category contributes risk points depending on what data is found (e.g., a PEP hit, a high-risk country, a sanctioned entity).
All points are added together into a total risk score.
That total is compared against your team's defined thresholds to assign a Calculated Risk Class.
For example, your team might configure: 0–30 points = Low, 31–70 points = Medium, 71+ points = High.
📌 When an entity is linked to multiple countries, Strise uses the highest-risk country in the calculation — never an average — so risk is never underestimated.
What risk categories are included?
Calculated Risk draws on up to six categories:
Risk category | What it evaluates |
PEP / RCAs | Whether any person in a key role is a Politically Exposed Person or a Relative/Close Associate |
Sanctions | Whether any entity matches an active sanctions list |
High-risk countries | Whether the entity or connected persons/companies are linked to high-risk jurisdictions |
High-risk industries | Whether the company operates in an industry your team has flagged as high risk |
High-risk legal forms | Whether the company has a legal structure your team considers higher risk |
Custom risk level | Any additional risk factor your team wants to include (e.g., source of wealth, product risk) |
For companies, Strise doesn't just look at the company itself — it also evaluates connected entities such as beneficial owners, board members, shareholders, and subsidiaries.
How are risk classes defined?
Your team defines both the names and score thresholds for each risk class. You can have up to 5 risk classes, and it's entirely up to you what they're called and how many points each covers.
A typical setup might look like this:
Risk class | Score range |
Low | 0 – 30 points |
Medium | 31 – 70 points |
High | 71+ points |
Each risk class also has a validity period — how long a completed review stays valid before the entity is due for re-review. Higher-risk classes typically get shorter validity periods to ensure more frequent follow-up.
Can I override the Calculated Risk Class?
Yes. The Calculated Risk Class is system-generated, but it can always be supplemented or overridden with a Manual Risk Level during a Review.
This is useful when additional context justifies a different classification — for example:
A customer in a high-risk industry has provided documentation that reduces their actual risk.
A large organisation has many PEPs by nature (e.g., a political party), but your internal policy doesn't warrant a "Severe" classification.
A self-declaration form provides information your analyst can use to justify a different class.
Both the Calculated Risk Class and any Manual Risk Level are visible in the interface and stored in the audit trail, so it's always transparent when and why a manual override was applied.
How does Calculated Risk connect to Reviews and Monitoring?
Calculated Risk works alongside Strise's Review and Monitoring features:
Reviews: When a review is opened, the Calculated Risk Class is calculated fresh using current data, and the reviewer sees a full breakdown of which categories contributed points.
Monitoring: When a relevant data change is detected (e.g., a new PEP hit or sanctions match), the Calculated Risk score will reflect that updated data when the next review is opened.
Portfolio: The Portfolio view shows the current Calculated Risk Class for all entities at a glance.
⚠️ Changes to Calculated Risk settings are not applied retroactively to already-completed reviews. Updated settings take effect the next time a review is opened for a given entity.
Who can change the settings?
Action | Who can do it |
View Calculated Risk settings | All users |
Edit risk points | Team managers only |
Edit risk class thresholds and names | Team managers only |
Set or change a Manual Risk Level | All users with Review access |
Want more detail?
For the full technical documentation on Calculated Risk, including configuration examples and scoring logic, visit the Strise Wiki.