What Are Sanctions Searches?

Sanctions searches are a critical compliance process used by businesses to ensure they are not dealing with individuals, companies, or organisations subject to financial sanctions. Regulatory bodies such as the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the European Union, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the United Nations Security Council (UN) publish lists of sanctioned entities. Engaging with a sanctioned party can result in severe legal penalties, financial loss, and reputational damage. Conducting sanctions searches demonstrates that a business has exercised proper due diligence and taken steps to mitigate these risks.

How Sanctions Searching Works

At its core, a sanctions search involves comparing the names of your clients or business partners against consolidated sanctions lists. Because these lists are updated frequently, it is not enough to perform a one-time check, ongoing monitoring is required. Our platform streamlines this process by aggregating sanctions data, applying intelligent matching technology, and maintaining an audit trail of checks. This ensures businesses can prove compliance to regulators if questioned, reducing exposure to fines or investigation.

Cost-Effective Compliance

SanctionsSearch.com is designed to be affordable and straightforward. Checks are priced at just £10 +VAT per 100 searches, allowing businesses of all sizes to perform regular due diligence without incurring high compliance costs. This transparent pricing structure makes it feasible for organisations to check both new and existing clients, ensuring that compliance obligations are met without unnecessary expense.

Client Management & Bulk Upload

Our platform makes sanctions screening simple by allowing users to add individual clients for screening or upload clients in bulk for larger data sets. This flexibility means it can be used effectively by small firms onboarding a handful of customers or by larger organisations managing hundreds or thousands of records. Once uploaded, the system runs checks quickly and provides clear reports, helping compliance teams act on potential matches efficiently.

Continuous Monitoring & Updates

One of the biggest challenges in sanctions compliance is keeping up with the pace of regulatory updates. SanctionsSearch.com addresses this by monitoring lists daily for changes. If new names are added to the sanctions lists, our platform automatically rescreens your sanctions searches and flags any potential matches. This ensures you remain compliant not only at the point of onboarding but throughout the client relationship, giving peace of mind that you are always aligned with the latest requirements.

Subscription & Jurisdiction Pricing

Your subscription to SanctionsSearch includes a full year’s membership, along with 100 free search credits to get started. Your account membership provides screening against sanctions and watch lists from the jurisdictions you select (with a minimum of one jurisdiction required). 

The cost of your annual subscription is based on the number of jurisdictions you choose to screen against:

• 1 Jurisdiction: £30.00 (+VAT) per year

• 2 Jurisdictions: £60.00 (+VAT) per year

• 3 or more Jurisdictions: £90.00 (+VAT) per year

If you decide to add more jurisdictions during your subscription, you won’t lose out, the additional cost is calculated pro rata, based on the number of whole months remaining in your current subscription term.