Sanctions screening checks a business name — and the names of its directors and key people — against a global database of sanctioned entities maintained by OpenSanctions.
Coverage
- 271,000+ entities across 84 sanctions lists
- Includes UN, US OFAC, EU, UK, Canadian (OSFI), and many other national programs
- Company screening and people screening run together in one call
Enabling screening
Add sanctionsScreening: true to your search request:
{
"name": "Acme Corp",
"sanctionsScreening": true
}
sanctions field of the response.
Setting the threshold
The sanctionsThreshold controls how strict the name matching is (70–100, default 85):
| Threshold | Behavior |
|---|
| 70–79 | More matches, higher false positive rate |
| 80–89 | Balanced (recommended starting point: 85) |
| 90–100 | Stricter — only near-exact name matches |
Response structure
When sanctionsScreening: true, the response includes a sanctions array. Each item is a match against the global sanctions database. An empty array means no matches were found.
{
"sanctions": [
{
"legalName": { "name": "ACME CORPORATION", "matchScore": 0.91 },
"alternateNames": ["Acme Corp"],
"addresses": [],
"details": {
"datasets": ["us_ofac_sdn"],
"countries": ["US"],
"topics": ["sanction"],
"legalForm": null
},
"sourceUrls": ["https://opensanctions.org/entities/ofac-12345/"]
}
]
}
| Field | Description |
|---|
legalName.name | The sanctioned entity’s name as it appears in the database |
legalName.matchScore | Match confidence (0–1). Higher = more similar to your query. |
alternateNames | Other names associated with the sanctioned entity |
details.datasets | Which sanctions lists flagged this entity (e.g., us_ofac_sdn, un_sc_sanctions) |
details.countries | Countries associated with the entity |
details.topics | Sanctions topic classifications |
sourceUrls | Direct links to the entity record for human review |
Partial failures
If the sanctions service is unavailable, the search still completes with other data. Check the errors object in the response:
{
"errors": {
"sanctions": {
"code": "UNAVAILABLE",
"message": "Sanctions service temporarily unavailable",
"retryable": true
}
}
}
Sanctions screening requires human review. A match indicates similarity between names — it is not a definitive determination. Always have a compliance professional review matches before taking action. The sourceUrls field links directly to the entity record to assist review.
