Sanctions Lists

Sanctions Lists#

Reference of authoritative sanctions and designation lists, the official, machine-readable sources operators consult for screening, enrichment, and compliance. The named-individual content lives at the source; this page points at the lists.

A note on naming named individuals: every entry on these lists is the result of a formal designation by a state or international body. The lists themselves are public; reproducing them in a handbook adds nothing the source doesn’t already provide, and risks staleness (entries are added and removed regularly). For operator work, consume the source directly.

Multilateral#

List

Notes

UN Security Council Consolidated

All UN sanctions across active resolutions (1267, 1718, 2231, 1970/1973, etc.). XML / JSON.

UN 1267 Sanctions List

Counter-terrorism designations.

United States#

List

Notes

OFAC SDN

Specially Designated Nationals; the central US sanctions list (Treasury). XML / CSV / JSON.

OFAC Consolidated Sanctions

Combines SDN + non-SDN PLC, FSE, NS-MBS, SSI, etc.

OFAC SSI / SDGT / FSE / NS-MBS

Sectoral, terrorism, foreign sanctions evaders, non-SDN menu-based lists.

US State Dept FTO

Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

US State Dept SDGT

Specially Designated Global Terrorists (E.O. 13224).

US Commerce BIS Entity List

Export-control denial list.

US Commerce BIS Denied Persons

Persons denied export privileges.

US Commerce BIS Unverified List

Diligence-required parties.

US DoD 1260H

Chinese military companies operating in the US.

DEA Controlled-Substance lists

Narcotics-trafficking related designations.

European Union#

List

Notes

EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions

Council Decisions + Regulations; XML.

EU Travel Ban list

Persons banned from EU entry.

United Kingdom#

List

Notes

HM Treasury Consolidated List

UK financial sanctions (OFSI). Multiple formats.

UK Proscribed Terrorist Orgs

Home Office; ~80 organizations.

Other major regimes#

Jurisdiction

List

Canada

SEMA, Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, UN Act regs, Listed Terrorist Entities (Public Safety Canada).

Australia

DFAT Consolidated List + Listed Terrorist Organizations (AGD).

Switzerland

SECO sanctions list.

Japan

METI End-User List.

South Korea

MOFA designated lists.

Singapore

MAS targeted financial sanctions list.

Hong Kong

Anti-terrorism (UN-derived).

India

UAPA designated terrorist organizations + individuals.

Russia

Rosfinmonitoring designations (Russian list).

Aggregators#

Source

Notes

OpenSanctions

Open project; consolidates 100+ government lists into structured data (Aleph integration).

Wikidata sanction-related items

Q-numbered designations.

World-Check (Refinitiv / LSEG)

Commercial; deep PEP + sanctions + adverse-media coverage.

Dow Jones Risk & Compliance

Commercial; sanctions + PEP + adverse-media.

LexisNexis Bridger

Commercial.

ComplyAdvantage

Commercial; ML-driven sanctions / PEP / adverse-media.

NameScan / Sanctionsearch

Commercial / freemium screening.

Sayari

Commercial corporate-graph + sanctions.

Adjacent designations#

  • PEPs (Politically Exposed Persons), not sanctioned per se, but require enhanced due diligence under FATF guidance. Lists: Wikidata, OpenSanctions, World-Check, Dow Jones.

  • Adverse media, press reporting on individuals tied to financial crime, terrorism, sanctions evasion. Commercial feeds aggregate.

  • Beneficial ownership registries, UK PSC, OpenCorporates, EU registers (post-AML6); identify human owners behind shell companies.

Operator notes#

  • Always pull from source, consolidations age fast; daily refresh of OFAC SDN is the typical cadence.

  • Match strategy, exact-name matching is naive; production screening uses tokenisation, transliteration, fuzzy matching (Jaro-Winkler, edit distance), per-attribute weighting, birthday corroboration.

  • False positives, common names cause large hit counts; resolution requires structured attributes (DOB, place of birth, passport number) which the lists themselves provide.

  • Scope of designations, some lists are “blocked” (transactions illegal); others are “denied” (export-only); others are “advisory” (heightened diligence). Read the framework before acting.

  • Authorization, screening regulated industries (banking, insurance, money-services) is a legal requirement under AML / CFT regimes. Independent operators should consult counsel.

References#

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