The short answer
Sanctions screening is checking a company, its owners and its officers against government sanctions lists — such as the US OFAC SDN list and the EU, UN and UK consolidated lists — to find out whether dealing with them is restricted or prohibited.
At a glance
- Term
- Sanctions screening
- Also known as
- sanctions check · sanctions list screening
- Category
- Screening & risk
- Where it matters
- Company and founder due diligence
Sanctions screening in practice
Sanctions lists name people, companies, vessels and organisations subject to asset freezes and trade restrictions. Lists are updated frequently — some on every new designation — so screening has to be repeated, not done once.
The hard part is matching. Lists are matched on names, and names collide, so most raw hits are someone else. Good screening uses identifiers and corroborating attributes to separate a real match from a namesake.
Why sanctions screening matters
- Dealing with a sanctioned party can be unlawful and carries serious penalties.
- Ownership matters: some regimes extend restrictions to entities owned by sanctioned persons.
- Investors, lenders and suppliers screen counterparties as standard practice.
Sanctions screening in MarketPrior
MarketPrior screens the company, its officers and its owners against the OFAC SDN list, the EU consolidated financial sanctions list, the UN Security Council consolidated list and the UK Sanctions List, plus SAM.gov exclusions, the UK FCA warning list, the UK disqualified-directors register and a PEP screen.
Every hit is tiered confirmed, probable or possible. A verdict reads “AVOID — SANCTIONED” only when a sanctions hit matches on an identifier. MarketPrior is decision support, not a regulated AML/KYC screening service.
Screening only reflects the lists at the time of the check. Ownership-based restrictions may require ownership data the public record does not fully provide.