Sanctions Screening API: OFAC, UK, EU & US export lists

Answers "is this company, vessel or person sanctioned?" for one or many names, against the official OFAC SDN and non-SDN lists, the US Consolidated Screening List (Commerce Entity List, Denied Persons, State lists), the UK Sanctions List and the EU financial sanctions list. Every answer says which lists were checked and how current they were, and every match links to its official source. Built for AI agents doing KYB, compliance or procurement checks, and for people who need a quick, sourced screen.

Pricing (pay per event): $0.01 per name screened, match or no match. A run that cannot load any list fails and costs nothing.

What you get

One row per name. Real output for {"names": ["Sovcomflot", "Novo Nordisk A/S"]} (run on 2026-11-05, shortened: lists_checked shown once, one match of three):

{
  "schema_version": "1",
  "query": "Sovcomflot",
  "match_found": true,
  "match_count": 3,
  "best_score": 100,
  "summary": "3 possible match(es) >= 85; best 100 'JOINT STOCK COMPANY SOVCOMFLOT' on the OFAC SDN List. A name match alone does not confirm identity: compare countries, identifiers and dates before acting.",
  "matches": [
    {
      "list": "ofac_sdn",
      "list_name": "OFAC SDN List",
      "entry_id": "34741",
      "listed_name": "JOINT STOCK COMPANY SOVCOMFLOT",
      "matched_name": "JOINT STOCK COMPANY SOVCOMFLOT",
      "matched_alias": false,
      "match_type": "exact",
      "score": 100,
      "aliases": ["PAO SOVCOMFLOT", "JSC SOVCOMFLOT", "SCF GROUP", "SCF"],
      "entity_type": "organization",
      "programs": ["RUSSIA-EO14024", "UKRAINE-EO13662"],
      "listing_date": null,
      "end_date": null,
      "countries": ["RU"],
      "country_match": null,
      "identifiers": [
        {"type": "Tax ID No.", "value": "7702060116"},
        {"type": "Registration Number", "value": "1027739028712"},
        {"type": "Legal Entity Number", "value": "253400DYLWR5A6YAWJ69"}
      ],
      "birth_dates": [],
      "source_url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=34741",
      "list_version_date": "2026-11-05"
    }
  ],
  "warnings": [],
  "min_score": 85,
  "entity_type": "any",
  "country": null,
  "checked_at": "2026-11-05T21:47:49+00:00"
}

The other two matches are the UK listing (RUS1097, designated 2022-03-24) and the EU listing (EU.11824.28, listed 2024-06-24, source_url = its Official Journal act). The no-match row is just as explicit:

{
  "query": "Novo Nordisk A/S",
  "match_found": false,
  "match_count": 0,
  "best_score": null,
  "summary": "No match >= 85 for 'Novo Nordisk A/S'. Checked: OFAC SDN List 2026-11-05, OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN) List 2026-11-04, US Consolidated Screening List (Commerce, State) 2026-11-05, UK Sanctions List 2026-11-03, EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List 2026-10-23.",
  "matches": [],
  "lists_checked": [
    {
      "list": "ofac_sdn",
      "list_name": "OFAC SDN List",
      "version_date": "2026-11-05",
      "fetched_at": "2026-11-05T21:47:21.253058+00:00",
      "entries": 19555,
      "file_url": "https://sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov/api/PublicationPreview/exports/SDN.XML"
    }
  ],
  "warnings": []
}

• matches: the top 5 listings at or above minScore, best first, with the name that matched (matched_name, matched_alias), how it matched (match_type: exact, fuzzy or contains), the programs or regimes, listing date, countries (ISO-2), identifiers and birth dates as the list publishes them, and the official source_url.
• lists_checked: every list behind the answer, with its publish date, download time and entry count. Put this in your audit trail.
• warnings: a list that could not be downloaded is named here (checked from a cached copy, or not checked at all). One list being down never fails the run.

Input

{ "names": ["Sovcomflot", "Huawei Technologies", "Petrel 8"], "entityType": "any", "minScore": 85 }

Field	Meaning
names	1-200 company, vessel or person names. Required
country	Optional ISO-2 code or English name (RU, Russia) of the party you screen. Never hides a match; listings in other countries go last with country_match: false
entityType	any (default), organization, person or vessel. Listings without a stated type are always kept
minScore	50-100, default 85. 100 = same name after normalisation
lists	Any of ofac_sdn, ofac_consolidated, us_csl, uk, eu. Default all

How names are matched: case, accents, punctuation, legal forms (Ltd, LLC, GmbH, PJSC, "joint stock company", ...) and word order are ignored, and every alias the list gives is checked. Score 100 = same words; 90-99 = small spelling differences, or the query is part of a longer listed name (contains: "Huawei" finds "Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd."); lower scores are looser variants. A one-word query only finds listed names that start with that word.

Use from an AI agent (MCP)

Agents can call this Actor as a tool through the Apify MCP server. Add this server URL to your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ...):

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=bosco_labs/sanctions-screening

It loads this Actor as a tool, plus the tools that read its results (get-actor-run, get-dataset-items). The hosted server signs you in with OAuth, or accepts your Apify token as Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>.

Example prompt: "Before we sign with these suppliers, check whether Sovcomflot or Novo Nordisk A/S are on any sanctions list, and cite the lists you checked." The agent passes:

{ "names": ["Sovcomflot", "Novo Nordisk A/S"] }

Output for agents: one small row per name (typically 2-7 KB), stable snake_case fields, ISO dates, null for unknown. summary is one sentence the agent can repeat; match_found is the yes/no; lists_checked gives the dates for the citation. A cold run (lists downloaded fresh) takes about 15-20 seconds; runs within an hour of the last one reuse the parsed lists and take a few seconds.

Cost: $0.01 per name screened, billed to the Apify account the MCP server is signed in with. Nothing is charged when no list can be loaded.

FAQ

Is this legal advice or a compliance decision? No. It is a screening aid. Fuzzy name matching produces false positives (a namesake) and can miss a party listed under a spelling or script it doesn't recognise. Review every match against the official entry (source_url) before acting, and use your own judgement or counsel for decisions. Only the official publications are authoritative (for the EU, the Official Journal).

Which lists are covered?

List	Publisher	Entries (2026-11-05)
ofac_sdn OFAC Specially Designated Nationals	US Treasury	19,555
ofac_consolidated OFAC non-SDN lists (SSI, NS-MBS, CMIC, PLC, ...)	US Treasury	486
us_csl Consolidated Screening List: Entity List, Denied Persons, Unverified, Military End User (Commerce/BIS); ITAR debarred, Nonproliferation (State)	US ITA	6,213
uk UK Sanctions List (replaced the OFSI list on 28 Jan 2026)	UK FCDO	6,420
eu EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List	European Commission	6,269

The CSL's Treasury sub-lists are skipped because the same entries come from OFAC directly.

What is not covered? The UN Security Council list is not used directly (its terms don't allow redistribution), but UN designations are largely included in the UK and EU lists. National lists of other countries, PEPs (politically exposed persons), adverse media, ownership (the OFAC 50% rule: companies owned by listed parties are often not listed themselves) and EU sectoral or vessel annexes outside the financial sanctions list are not covered.

How fresh is it? Each run uses the lists as published at most 1 hour earlier; older copies are downloaded again. lists_checked shows each list's own publish date. Agencies publish on their own schedule (OFAC and the CSL often daily, the UK and EU when designations change).

Why is listing_date null for OFAC? OFAC's standard XML doesn't include designation dates (only its 110 MB "enhanced" file does). Check the OFAC entry page in source_url.

Personal data? The lists name individuals. This Actor serves only per-name screening results (at most 5 listings per name, no bulk export) for sanctions compliance, and keeps only the fields needed to confirm or rule out a match. See LEGAL.md.

Attribution. OFAC and CSL data are US government works. This product uses the International Trade Administration's Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the International Trade Administration. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (UK Sanctions List). EU data: European Commission, Consolidated list of persons, groups and entities subject to EU financial sanctions; reformatted for matching, names as published. No endorsement by any publisher is implied.