Scanning process

The scanning process examines text for occurrences of names or other information identified in any of the industry based sanctions lists. Two issues are raised for any screening method. First, the risk of not identifying a blocked person or entity when it is present in the scanned text(false negative). Second, the cost of stopping a transaction when in fact there is not a blocked entity in the scanned text(false positive). The design of the SDN Scanner recognizes that the cost of false negative transactions is high and gives priority to eliminating such items.

Custom list

Sanctions lists include a broad set of names and terms which are in common use. The SDN Scanner supports a Custom list that allows users to improve the accuracy of the scan by qualifying specific text as pre-approved(not in need of further review). The Custom list also allows users to include text which is not specified in the primary sanctions lists. An included entry is treated like any blocked entity and creates a reportable item when matched.

List preparation

Sanctions lists selected by the user and the user's Custom list are combined into a scanning dictionary that's used to examine text.

Sanctions lists

Any combination of lists can be used. The combination can include lists that we publish and the two lists that we support but do not publish. These two lists, the Custom and FinCen lists, you must upload yourself.

Differential lists

Every time a sanctions list changes it should not be necessary to scan a large database against the entire list. Instead, it is only necessary to scan the database against the additions to the list. To facilitate differential scanning we produce differential lists. Every time we publish a new sanctions list we compare it to its previous version. In most cases names have been added or dropped. When this happens we publish a differential list consisting of the names that were added and the names that were dropped. Sometimes a new edition of a sanctions list is published that only has changes to remarks and other details that we do not scan. In such cases we do not publish a differential list.

Click on a date link in the As Of Dates column to view the details of a differential list.