How Global VE Trading Cut Routine Vessel Screening from 30 Minutes to Five

About Global VE Trading

Global VE Trading is a Malaysia-based floating storage and ship-to-ship (STS) service provider, serving some of the world’s largest oil companies and commodity traders.

Operating in a highly regulated industry, Global VE Trading must meet its customers’ stringent compliance standards while protecting its own business from sanctions exposure. Reliable vessel screening is essential to maintaining customer trust, safeguarding insurance coverage, and keeping business moving.

A Small Team, High Volumes, and Manual Checks

Global VE Trading is responsible for screening every vessel entering its Malaysian anchorages, and with 300-1,000 screenings handled by two analysts every month, efficiency is critical.

Before adopting Windward, screening was a largely manual process. Analysts checked sanctions lists, cross-referenced vessel information, took screenshots as evidence, and uploaded records to internal systems. The company’s previous screening tool also struggled to provide reliable vessel tracking and historical records.

The consequences were felt across the business:

• Slow turnaround. Even straightforward, low-risk vessels took at least 30 minutes to screen.
• Unreliable results. False positives and concerns about data accuracy forced analysts to manually verify screening results.
• Limited risk visibility. Conventional checks made it difficult to identify deceptive shipping practices, including AIS gaps and location manipulation.
• Time-consuming recordkeeping. Manually collecting and storing screening evidence added further administrative work.

Missed sanctions risks can have serious consequences, including restrictions on P&I coverage, banking difficulties, and reputational damage. For Global VE Trading, the challenge was to reduce the time and manual effort involved in screening without compromising the thoroughness of its due diligence, or the confidence of its major oil and energy customers.

A Clean Sanctions Record Doesn’t Mean a Vessel Is Safe

For Global VE Trading, sanctions-list screening alone could not provide the assurance its customers expected.

A vessel might not appear on any sanctions list but could still carry significant exposure through its trading history, unexplained AIS gaps, or recent STS transfers with sanctioned vessels.

These concerns are particularly important when a vessel’s past behavior could raise questions about a clearance decision months later.

Global VE Trading needed greater visibility into behavioral risks, but equally important was the ability to distinguish genuinely suspicious activity from legitimate technical or operational issues.

An inaccurate risk flag could mean rejecting a vessel unnecessarily, potentially disrupting an operation and damaging customer relationships. Every decision needed to be fast, accurate, and backed by evidence.

Faster, More Confident Screening with Windward

While Global VE Trading maintains strict compliance standards, rejecting a vessel can have commercial consequences. The team needs to investigate concerns thoroughly and provide defensible reasons for any decision that prevents an operation from proceeding.

Turning a Rejection into a Clearance

In one recent case, Global VE Trading initially rejected a vessel after Windward identified a suspected AIS transmission gap near Iran.

Given the company’s strict approach to Iran-related sanctions exposure, the vessel could not be cleared without further investigation.

The vessel’s managers subsequently provided Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) data showing its position during the AIS gap.

Global VE Trading submitted the evidence to Windward’s decision support team, which reviewed the case and removed the risk indicator after validating the information. With the concern resolved, Global VE Trading was able to clear the vessel.

For Chad, this demonstrated the value of working with a provider that does more than flag potential risks. Windward’s willingness to investigate supporting evidence and provide clear guidance on what was needed helped the business reach a defensible decision and proceed with the operation.

Chad reports that Windward consistently responds to support tickets in less than one working day, much faster than the other screening providers his team uses.

Business Benefits for Global VE Trading

Since adopting Windward, Global VE Trading has improved screening efficiency, strengthened its risk assessments, and reduced the administrative burden on its compliance team.

• Over 80% faster low-risk screening. Straightforward vessel screenings now take approximately five minutes, compared with at least 30 minutes previously.
• More efficient complex investigations. Even cases requiring enhanced due diligence benefit from faster access to vessel intelligence, with reported time savings of approximately 10–20%.
• 100% screening coverage, maintained at scale. The team continues to screen every vessel entering its anchorages, managing 300 to 1,000 screenings per month with greater efficiency.
• Faster resolution of risk flags. Windward’s analyst support team consistently responds in less than one working day, helping the business resolve questions that could otherwise delay clearances.
• Trusted evidence for insurers. Windward screening reports are accepted by Global VE Trading’s P&I club as evidence of vessel due diligence, helping the company demonstrate compliance and support its clearance decisions.
• Simpler recordkeeping. Windward’s Audit Trail reduces the need to manually export and archive screening reports, while making historical screening decisions easier to review.
• Screening on the move. With Windward’s WhatsApp screening feature, Chad can retrieve a quick vessel risk snapshot using an IMO number, even when away from the office.

Together, these improvements allow a small compliance team to manage high screening volumes while giving commercial stakeholders greater confidence in the decisions behind every vessel clearance.

Looking Ahead

As maritime sanctions risks evolve, Global VE Trading is looking to build on its efficiency gains with an even more proactive approach to compliance. Its priorities include continuous vessel monitoring between clearance and arrival and further automation of routine screenings, allowing the team to concentrate its expertise on complex investigations.

Windward’s Risk & Compliance Solution

Windward’s Maritime AI™ Risk & Compliance solution helps maritime businesses identify sanctions exposure and deceptive shipping practices that conventional screening may miss.

Combining sanctions and ownership intelligence with AI-powered behavioral analytics, Windward provides visibility into AIS gaps, location manipulation, high-risk STS transfers, suspicious port calls, and other risk indicators. Its AI models identify approximately 97% of sanctioned vessels before they are officially designated.

Available through the Windward platform or embedded into existing workflows via API, the solution helps compliance teams screen vessels efficiently while focusing their expertise on cases that require closer investigation.

Chad also emphasized Windward’s willingness to engage in a two-way conversation with customers, investigate concerns, and review supporting evidence. For other maritime operators looking to strengthen their screening processes, this responsiveness is a key reason he recommends Windward.

See How Much Time Windward Could Save Your Screening Team

Discover how Windward’s Risk & Compliance solution can accelerate vessel screening, reduce manual work, and strengthen compliance decisions.