What You Need to Know About the UN Sanctions List

2 mins

The United Nations is an international organisation devoted to promote global peace and security as well as long-term economic growth. In order to achieve these goals, the UN seeks to combat financial crimes such as money laundering and terror financing by imposing sanctions on the nations, businesses, and persons involved.

What is the UN Sanctions List?

The United Nations Sanctions List, commonly known as the United Nations Security Council Consolidated List, is a list of all persons and companies sanctioned by the UN.

Under the power of Article 41, Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council considers and composes the UN sanctions. All sanctions must be backed by a Security Council Resolution outlining the specific measures to be applied, which may include asset freezes and market access limitations, as well as arms embargoes, travel restrictions, and other measures.

The sanctions list of the United Nations is divided into two sections:

  • Individuals
  • Groups and entities

Each section’s entries are arranged alphabetically. The webpage of the appropriate UN sanctions committee responsible for the particular sanctions regime has further information on the reasons for each sanction listing.

Individual member states are responsible for enforcing fines and penalties for non-compliance, and they can impose considerable financial penalties on both persons and corporations, as well as criminal proceedings for anyone engaged in the violation.

Who is responsible for adhering to these sanctions?

The Consolidated List applies to all UN member nations, which implies that as part of their AML/CFT compliance programme, all banks and financial institutions inside those states must do a UN sanctions search.

Domestic authorities are obliged to design and execute laws to guarantee that their committed institutions perform UN sanctions screening as part of any larger mandated screening processes, given that the UN has no direct legislative ability to enforce its sanctions within member states.

What Makes a Sanctions Screening Tool So Important?

The UN’s Consolidated List, like other multilateral sanctions lists, is continually changing as new items are added and others are removed, posing a considerable compliance burden for obliged organisations.

Financial institutions can reduce their compliance burden by using automated sanctions screening systems. These solutions do sanctions searches faster and more precisely than a human screening procedure, and they dynamically identify sanctioned consumers.

Find Out More About Our Sanctions Screening Tool

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