Understanding sanctions and watchlist screening
How Senserity screens companies and their key people against UK sanctions lists, and what a match means.
Sanctions screening checks whether a company, its directors, or its persons with significant control appear on official sanctions lists. A confirmed sanctions match is one of the most serious findings Senserity can produce. It can mean that doing business with the entity is legally prohibited, and it triggers the highest-tier Red Flag in the scoring system.
What sanctions are
Sanctions are restrictions imposed by governments on individuals, companies, and organisations. In the UK, sanctions are maintained by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury. They implement UK autonomous sanctions as well as UN Security Council measures.
Sanctions can take several forms: asset freezes (preventing the person or entity from accessing their UK assets), travel bans, trade restrictions, and prohibitions on making funds or economic resources available to the designated person. For businesses, the practical consequence is straightforward: if a supplier, customer, or partner is on the sanctions list, transacting with them may be a criminal offence.
What Senserity screens
Senserity screens at four levels:
The company itself. The company name and registration number are checked against the UK sanctions list. A direct company match is a Tier 1 Red Flag, the most severe category.
Directors. Each current director is screened individually. A sanctioned director may indicate that the company is subject to indirect control by a designated person, even if the company itself is not listed.
Individual PSCs. Persons with significant control who are natural persons are screened by name. A sanctioned PSC has ownership or control of the company, which raises the most direct questions about whether the company is effectively controlled by a designated person.
Corporate PSCs. Where a PSC is another company rather than an individual, that company is also screened. This catches situations where a sanctioned entity holds indirect control through a corporate chain.
How matching works
Sanctions matching is not a simple name lookup. Names can be transliterated from other scripts, abbreviated, misspelled in the original designation, or shared by many unrelated people. Senserity uses fuzzy matching to identify potential matches and assigns a confidence score to each.
A high-confidence match with strong identifying information (such as a matching date of birth or company number) is treated as a confirmed match. A lower-confidence match, where only the name is similar, is flagged for manual review. This distinction matters because false positives are common, particularly for individuals with common names.
Each match result includes:
The designation details. Which sanctions regime the person or entity is listed under, the type of sanction (asset freeze, travel ban, etc.), and the date of designation.
A statement of reasons. Where available, the official reason for the designation, which explains why the person or entity was sanctioned.
Match confidence. An assessment of how closely the matched record corresponds to the company, director, or PSC in question.
Aliases. Many sanctioned individuals are listed under multiple names. Senserity shows whether the match was against a primary name or an alias.
What to do with a match
A sanctions match is not something to ignore or dismiss without investigation. If Senserity identifies a potential match, the recommended steps are:
Review the match details. Check whether the identifying information (name, date of birth, nationality, address) corresponds to the person or company you are dealing with. Many matches, particularly for common names, will turn out to be false positives.
Check the sanctions regime. Different regimes carry different obligations. Some prohibit all transactions; others restrict specific types of activity.
Seek legal advice if the match appears genuine. Sanctions compliance is a legal obligation, and the penalties for breaching sanctions can be severe, including criminal prosecution. If you believe the match is real, you should consult your compliance team or legal adviser before taking any further action with the company.
Record your assessment. Whether you conclude the match is genuine or a false positive, document your reasoning. Senserity's review system allows you to record your assessment against the finding, and you can also use the review system to discuss the finding with colleagues.
Scoring impact
Sanctions matches have the largest possible impact on a company's risk score. A confirmed company-level sanctions match triggers a Tier 1 Red Flag, adding 60 points to the overall score. Director or PSC sanctions matches trigger a Tier 2 Red Flag, adding 40 points. These bonuses are in addition to the category-level impact of the failed tests.
See What Red Flags mean for more on how Red Flag tiers work.
Screening is automatic and free
Sanctions screening runs as part of the standard enrichment cycle for every company on your watchlist. It does not consume credits and does not require a specific subscription tier. The screening data is refreshed each time the company is re-enriched, so new designations are picked up automatically.
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