Scope and sources of the sanctions database

Questions the snapshot must answer

1. Which records does this official file publish now?
2. Can the stored name, program and date still be tied to that file?
3. Is the identity the file’s own number, or a guess from a similar name?
4. Who decides whether a transaction may proceed? The issuer publishes the fact. The user decides.

Six axioms

• Official file only. News, commercial databases and name similarity are not sources.
• Do not merge two source-native IDs, including across issuers or scripts.
• Publish current membership only. Removed Swiss targets stay out of the public file.
• Keep each issuer's official date. generatedAt is the local assembly time.
• Omit dates of birth, documents, street addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.
• Do not translate a list hit into a prohibition, licence or ownership conclusion.

The same name on an OFAC file and an EU file stays two records. The UK Sanctions List and the OFSI financial-sanctions list are both official, so overlap is not collapsed. The Swiss download includes removed targets. The public layer keeps only targets without a de-listed mark. Repeated copies of the same Swiss number are folded into one record. That does not create a new identity.

Files in the current snapshot

The snapshot was assembled at 2026-09-19 16:58:23 (UTC+8). That is a local assembly time, not an effective date under any one law.

• Australian Sanctions Consolidated List: 3906 records, identity field Reference, no single date in the file. Issuer page
• UFLPA Entity List: 192 records, ids are derived locators (the file has no official number), no single date in the file. Issuer page
• BIS Entity List: 3328 records, ids are derived locators (the file has no official number), no single date in the file. Issuer page
• BIS Military End-User List: 70 records, ids are derived locators (the file has no official number), no single date in the file. Issuer page
• BIS Denied Persons List: 1982 records, ids are derived locators (the file has no official number), no single date in the file. Issuer page
• BIS Unverified List: 373 records, ids are derived locators (the file has no official number), no single date in the file. Issuer page
• UN Security Council Consolidated List: 1011 records, identity field DATAID, file date 2026-09-18. Issuer page
• OFAC Specially Designated Nationals List: 19393 records, identity field uid, file date 2026-09-18. Issuer page
• OFAC Consolidated Non-SDN List: 481 records, identity field entity@id, file date 2026-09-14. Issuer page
• UK Sanctions List: 6340 records, identity field UniqueID, file date 2026-09-11. Issuer page
• OFSI Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets: 5135 records, identity field GroupID, no single date in the file. Issuer page
• EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List: 6234 records, identity field logicalId, file date 2026-08-05. Issuer page
• Consolidated Canadian Autonomous Sanctions List: 5698 records, ids are derived locators (the file has no official number), no single date in the file. Issuer page
• SECO Swiss Sanctions List: 7108 records, identity field target@ssid, file date 2026-09-04. Issuer page

What is left out on purpose

• DOD 1260H is not covered yet: its host blocks automated retrieval and it publishes as a page, not as a bulk file.
• OFAC Advanced XML is not the input. This snapshot uses SDN.XML and CONS_ENHANCED.XML, so nested relationships are absent.
• Weak or low-quality aliases are omitted from search.
• Not covered: unnamed ownership rules, country or sector embargoes, licences, and historical removals other than the Swiss filter.
• Canada has no official row UID. Its id is a derived locator and must not be treated as a government number.
• UK Sanctions List and the OFSI consolidated list are both official and overlap. They are not deduplicated.
• BIS exports and the DHS UFLPA page carry no official row UID and no entity type. Their ids are derived locators (list or statutory section, name); rows are folded by name, street addresses stay out under the privacy axiom, and the type is set only when a company or agency suffix is recognizable, otherwise it stays 'other'.

Weak and low-quality aliases are omitted from search so a string the issuer marked as weak is not shown as an equal name. The omission is in the public layer. The raw-file hash remains in the assembly record. This site does not republish the raw XML.

Personal information

These lists contain information about people that the issuer has already published. The site keeps only fields needed to see who the record is, without document numbers. Dates of birth, identity numbers, street addresses, phone numbers and email addresses stay out of the public snapshot even when the official file contains them. A vessel IMO number is not a personal document and may be kept.

Relationship to the China list database

Lists published by China’s Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and related authorities remain in the China entity-list database. The fields, statuses and official domains differ, so the two collections are not stored in one JSON file. To search both at once use counterparty screening. This database also does not rewrite a foreign measure as an instruction to a user in China.

How a snapshot is replaced

python3 scripts/build-sanctions-database.py downloads only the allow-listed official files, parses them and writes a new snapshot. The build audit checks counts, hashes, unique identities, the direction of official dates, and that the Swiss removal filter actually ran. A failed download does not publish a half-updated source.