Sanctions Screening — EU, US OFAC & UN Lists

Screen names against the official sanctions lists published by the European Union, the US Treasury (OFAC) and the United Nations Security Council. Straight from the authorities, with a link to the legal source on every row.

No API key. No account. No third-party licence.

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Why this exists

Anti-money-laundering rules require regulated businesses — banks, insurers, estate agents, notaries, exporters, crypto firms — to check counterparties against sanctions lists before doing business. Enterprise screening tools are priced for enterprises.

This Actor does the lookup on the primary sources: the same CSV and XML files the authorities publish themselves. Every hit carries the programme, the legal basis and a link to the official record — the three things an auditor asks for.

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What you can do

Mode	What you get
Screen names against the lists	Every match for the names you enter, across all three authorities, with aliases, birth dates, nationalities and programme
Export the full lists	The complete lists as flat rows, ready for your own database
Show list sizes and sources	How many entries each list holds and where the authority publishes it

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The lists

Authority	Entries	What it covers
European Union	~6,200	Consolidated Financial Sanctions List — asset freezes and restrictions under EU regulations
US Treasury (OFAC)	~19,200	Specially Designated Nationals, including vessels and aircraft
United Nations	~1,000	Security Council Consolidated List — the basis most national lists build on

Each is fetched live from the publishing authority on every run, so you always screen against the current version.

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Quick start

1. Pick Screen names against the lists.
2. Enter the names to check, one per line.
3. Click Start, download as CSV for your file.

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Example inputs

Check a counterparty against all three lists

{
  "mode": "screenNames",
  "names": ["Gazprom", "Rosneft", "Sberbank"],
  "maxItems": 200
}

EU list only, for an EU-regulated obligation

{
  "mode": "screenNames",
  "names": ["Example Trading GmbH"],
  "sources": ["eu"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Screen a whole customer list in one run

{
  "mode": "screenNames",
  "names": ["Alpha Ltd", "Beta SA", "Gamma AG", "Delta BV"],
  "maxItems": 500
}

Export the EU list into your own system

{
  "mode": "exportLists",
  "sources": ["eu"],
  "maxItems": 10000
}

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Output fields

Field	Description
name	Official name as published
matchedTerm	Which of your search terms produced the hit
aliases	Every other name and spelling on the entry
source	Which authority publishes it
programme	Which sanctions programme applies, e.g. UKRAINE-EO14024
legalBasis	The regulation the listing rests on (EU)
sourceUrl	Link to the official record
listedOn, lastUpdated	When the entry was designated and last changed
type	Person, Entity, Vessel or Aircraft
birthDates, birthPlaces, nationalities, gender	For people — what separates a real hit from a namesake
positions	Function or title held
addresses, identifiers	Addresses and passport, ID or registration numbers
vesselCallSign, vesselType, vesselFlag, vesselOwner	For listed vessels
euReference, unReference, entityId	Reference numbers used by the authorities
remarks	Additional context published with the listing

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How matching works

Names are compared against the official name and every recorded alias — so Taliban also finds entries that carry it only as an alias, and transliterated spellings are covered where the authority publishes them.

Whole-word matching is on by default. Without it, Putin also matches Supercomputing. In a compliance workflow every false positive costs review time, so this is the safer default. Turn it off for deliberately fuzzy searches.

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Limits and honest caveats

• This is a lookup tool, not a compliance product. No liability cover, no phonetic fuzzy matching, no audit trail. Treat the output as research input.
• A name match is not an identification. Compare date of birth, nationality and identifiers before acting on a hit.
• Coverage is these three lists. National lists (UK, Switzerland, Canada, Australia) and PEP registers are not included.
• No fuzzy matching. Misspellings and transliteration variants the authority does not list will be missed.
• Lists are fetched live, so a run takes a few seconds longer than a cached lookup — in exchange the data is never stale.

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FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. All three authorities publish these lists openly.

Is this enough for regulatory KYC? It gives you the primary-source data, but without workflow, archiving or liability. Many teams use it for pre-screening and supplier checks, then escalate real hits into their formal process.

Why do I get hits that are obviously a different person? Names repeat across the world. Use birthDates, nationalities and identifiers to rule out namesakes.

Can I check hundreds of names at once? Yes. Put them all in the names field; they are screened in a single pass.

Are PEP lists included? No. Politically exposed person registers come from aggregators whose data is licensed for non-commercial use only, so they are deliberately left out.

What formats can I export? CSV, Excel, JSON, XML, or straight from the Apify API.

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Sources

• EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List
• US OFAC Specially Designated Nationals
• UN Security Council Consolidated List

These are official publications of the respective authorities. Entries concern identifiable people: screening data is personal data under GDPR, so you need a lawful basis, and results should not be stored longer or shared more widely than your obligation requires.