I am not authorised by the FCA so do I have to comply with Financial Sanctions?

Absolutely yes – Financial Sanctions are within the remit of the HM Treasury and as such apply to most if not all companies and industries within the UK. The FCA just helps to enforce the rules within its sector. As such, businesses beyond those regulated by the FCA also need to comply.

Please read the interesting text below, taken straight from the HM Treasury web site. We have highlighted the bit which is of most relevance:-

Who must comply with financial sanctions in place in the UK?

There may be two legislative instruments imposing a financial sanctions regime in the UK - a Statutory Instrument and/or an EC Regulation.

The relevant Statutory Instruments apply to any person in the UK and to any person elsewhere who is a British citizen, a British Overseas territories citizen, a British Overseas citizen, a British subject, a British National (Overseas), or a British protected person; or is a body incorporated or constituted under the law of any part of the UK or a Scottish partnership, including banks, financial institutions, charitable organisations and non-governmental organisations, in the UK or established under UK law. The UK statutory instruments do not apply to subsidiaries operating wholly outside the UK and which do not have legal personality under UK law.

What this means is all persons and entities in the UK must comply with this particular law there are no exemptions or waivers.

This is why Solicitors and Accountants should be aware of this piece of legislation. It goes without saying that both Solicitors and Accountants
are uniquely placed within client transactions creating the need for compliance with this piece of legislation.

Our system is not industry specific, so whatever your occupation, such as Accountant, Solicitor or Insurance Broker, we can provide the evidence you need to prove that you have processes in place to check that your clients are not on the Financial Sanctions List.

What do I get for my £25 per annum? Is it value for money?

You get 1 year’s full membership to the site. You also get 100 free search credits. And finally, we will re-screen any clients which you have already searched, after each and every sanctions list update, for as long as you are a member (subject to our fair usage policy as outlined in our T&Cs). All that data will stay associated with your login information to ensure you have the necessary audit trail you need.

As such, we believe SanctonsSearch.com to be very good value for money. The annual fee is not simply a figure we have plucked from the air - it is the minimum sum needed to ensure the system develops and provides you with the compliance you need – while at the same time allowing us to invest in and develop additional services to help you in future .

You also get access to our bulk upload and application interface allowing you the ability to screen any number of clients in one simple process. Whilst there are additional costs associated with these facilities they are comparable with our affordable £25 annual membership level when our competitors are charging £1000s per annum for the same service.

I use the HMT Sanctions List already why should I use SanctionsSearch.com?

The important point is that the requirements you need to fulfil to be compliant are less about merely searching the list and more about having the means to actually prove you have done so. Searching the list is easy and we will even tell you where it is and how to search it – but please bear in mind the risks!

Remember - without SanctionsSearch.com you will have no audit trail of that process.

Another point to remember is the on-going compliance issue of re-screening client data after sanctions list updates. The sanctions list can be updated quite frequently and whilst it is relatively easy to search one or two clients, re-screening a whole client bank sometimes 5 times in a week is almost impossible. 

This all serves to make our £25 per year membership a somewhat paltry figure and probably the best value for money compliance solution you will ever find.

My Company has over 2,000 clients we can’t possibly be expected to search all of them individually. What do we do?

Our system has many tools to aid you with getting data in, one of which is the bulk upload tool. This tool allows you to upload data on-mass in a pre-agreed format. It is simple to use and can screen 2,000 clients real-time in a matter of minutes. Once the clients are in the system, we will then screen them after each and every sanctions list update completely free of charge (subject to your ongoing membership). All you do then is just screen new clients at the point of initial enquiry.

We have a website which carries out a large amount of business how can we screen the clients easily?

We also offer an Application Interface or API, for web sites and back office client management systems, This will allow screens to be done in your account straight from a web site or client management system, thus reducing the user interaction and ensuring the all important audit trail. It should be noted that some screens may still need to be resolved if similar data is found for that client on the sanctions list.

Privacy and security is a big issue for my business how do you deal with it?

Privacy and security is our number one priority here at SanctionsSeach.com. We provide a service to businesses and we do not want that service to be tarnished in any way. All our servers have 128bit encryption and a verifiable security certificate. All payments received from you will be processed under our secure servers and will be transacted directly with the PayPal secure payments facility. As such, we do not take or retain any credit card information.

No-one else can view any data entered by you and we will only view the data on your explicit request.

What lists do you screen against?

We screen against a number of lists which include the HM Treasury consolidated list, and also the UK Sanctions list, this consists of sanctions orders deemed appropriate by the UK Government, that may not be already subject to the imposition of a United Nations Sanctions order. 

We are constantly adding additional lists, but the current scope of coverage is (at time of writing and subject to necessary subscription)

• Belgium Sanctions List 
• Canadian Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials List 
• Canadian Consolidated Sanctions List 
• Australian DFAT Sanctions List 
• French Sanctions List 
• HM Treasury Sanctions List 
  This list includes: HM Treasury Ukraine Securities List, UK Sanctions List
• EU Sanctions List
• New Zealand: Russia Sanctions Register 
• OFAC Specially Designated Nationals List 
  This list includes: OFAC Consolidated (Non SDN) List
• Canadian OSFI Sanctions List 
• Singapore TSOFA List 
• Swiss SECO Sanctions List 
• United Nations Sanctions List 
• UAE Sanctions List

Do you need more lists? Then contact us directly with your requirements and we will see if we are able to import the relevant list for you.

I understand this is all about an audit trail but how do you provide that?

Simple! We provide an instant certificate for your client file, if required. In addition, the entire search history (and search results) associated with your account are stored by the system, thus providing the required audit trail. Data including initial search dates along with results and date of last re-screen triggered by a sanctions list update on all clients is also available within your account.

Great! I need this system to be part of my Financial Sanctions compliance. What do I do now?

Just click here to ‘register’ registration is fast and easy and once you have registered you can start searching clients straight away.

If you need additional credits or you feel that your usage is going to fall within our bespoke pricing just give us a call on the number at the top of the page and one of our team will sort something out for you .