Three questions decide whether a screening tool holds up when an examiner reviews a sanctions program: which lists it checks for each license the firm holds, how fast a new designation reaches those lists and the firm's own customers, and where the record of each search is kept. OFAC's recordkeeping rule, 31 CFR 501.601, requires a full record of each covered transaction to stay available for examination for at least 10 years.
This page puts 12 tools to those questions side by side, using each vendor's own pages, rather than one rival against complead at a time.
What does sanctions screening software do, and which lists must it carry?
Table 1. Lists a sanctions screening tool must carry, by where you operate (sources read 9 November 2026)
| Where you operate | List | Publisher | What to check | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US persons | SDN List and OFAC's other lists, such as the SSI List | OFAC | Files or an API through the Sanctions List Service; the SSI List was last updated on 4 November 2026 | OFAC Sanctions List Service; other OFAC sanctions lists |
| UK | UK Sanctions List | FCDO | The only UK source since 28 January 2026, when the OFSI Consolidated List closed | gov.uk |
| EU | Consolidated list of persons, groups and entities under EU financial sanctions | European Commission (DG FISMA) | Reflects the texts adopted in the Official Journal | European Commission |
| UN member states | Security Council Consolidated List | UN Security Council | Each member state implements the measures for each listed name | UN Security Council |
| US persons | No list: companies owned 50 percent or more by blocked persons | OFAC | Whether the tool carries ownership data, or leaves the owners to you | OFAC's 50 percent rule |
| UK and EU | No list: companies owned or controlled by listed parties | OFSI; the Council of the EU | The same, under each regime's own ownership and control test | UK ownership and control; EU Best Practices |
Sanctions screening software, also called sanction screening or sanctions checking software, checks people, companies and payment parties against those lists at three moments: when a customer is onboarded, again whenever a list or the customer's own data changes, and while a payment is still in flight. Screening customers by name is the core of the job, and it is what complead's client screening and ongoing monitoring is built for. A one off search on a list's own site is a different task.
The UK row changed this year. The OFSI Consolidated List stopped updating on 28 January 2026 and stays online only for reference. Some vendor pages still name HM Treasury as their UK source. Ask which UK file the tool loads.
A firm licensed in more than one place carries more than one row, owned companies rows included. The free sanctions risk calculator asks 15 questions, and its full report names the watchlists a business is required to screen against.
How do you compare sanctions screening tools before you sign?
Ask each vendor to show these eight points on your own names during the demo.
- Lists per license. Every list in Table 1 your licenses need, each with its last refresh date. A threshold cannot catch a name on a list never loaded.
- Two refresh speeds. How fast a list change reaches the vendor, and how soon your customers are screened again after it or after their own details change. OFAC's Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments counts screening software not updated with SDN List changes among the root causes of violations (page 11).
- Matching set per list. Capital letters, spelling, legal suffixes and transliteration all change a name. The same page lists alternative spellings that filters missed, such as Habana for Havana and Kuba for Cuba.
- Identifiers and every party. Match the addresses, registration numbers and bank codes on a list entry, and screen every person on an account, not only its holder.
- A reviewer on every alert. No hit is released without a person's decision, backlog or not. If the vendor's AI scores or explains a match, ask who closes the alert and where that decision is recorded.
- Payments in flight. Payment screening looks at the payer and the payee of a transfer while it is still being processed. Ask whether a hit holds the payment until someone reviews it.
- A retest after every release. A software update can switch a control off without anyone noticing, as OFAC's 2026 settlement with TradeStation shows (below). Ask how the vendor tests each release against your configuration.
- Records. Every search kept, exportable and readable by an examiner (next section).
OFAC's release of 25 November 2019 on Apple's settlement shows three of these checks failing together: OFAC designated SIS d.o.o., a Slovenian software company, on 24 February 2015, and Apple screened its developer names against the new listings that same day. It missed SIS. Apple later traced the miss to its tool, which did not match the upper case "SIS DOO" in Apple's records with "SIS d.o.o." on the SDN List (check 3), although the address Apple held matched the one OFAC published (check 4). The company's director and majority owner, also designated, sat on the account as an administrator, a role Apple's process did not screen (check 4 again). Apps then passed to two other developers with no further screening (check 2). Apple agreed to pay $466,912 and reconfigured its tool for spelling, capitalization and national company suffixes, with a yearly review of its logic (check 7).
The release ends on the benefit of screening that "utilizes all of the information on the SDN List". To compare accuracy, send every shortlisted tool the same file of your own names.
What records should a screening tool keep?
OFAC's interim final rule of 13 September 2024 extended retention for certain transactions from five to 10 years, effective 12 March 2025. For screening, a usable record holds who searched, what, when, which lists and thresholds applied, and the result, including searches that matched nothing. Ask for the examiner's export.
Who are the best sanctions screening software vendors in 2026?
complead publishes this page; we list ourselves first and say so. Eleven rivals follow in A to Z order, chosen from this page's first plan and from the vendor written "best sanctions screening" lists read for it.
Each cell comes from the vendor's own sanctions screening and pricing pages, read on 9 November 2026, in its words or a close summary. "Not stated" means the page read says nothing on the point; "not published" means it shows no price. Vendor accuracy percentages are left out because none comes with a method a buyer could check. Nothing is scored or ranked. For full AML suites, this table compares screening alone, not every AML module.
Table 2. 12 sanctions screening tools compared (vendor pages read 9 November 2026)
| Vendor | Lists and sources (as stated) | Refresh (as stated) | Matching (as stated) | Ownership or payments (as stated) | Pricing (as published) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| complead (ours) | 3,500+ sanctions, PEP and watchlists from 220+ jurisdictions, refreshed every 15 minutes; among them OFAC, EU, UN, UK, DFAT and SECO lists | Every 15 minutes; monitoring started and stopped per name by API | Fuzzy, phonetic and transliteration matching in five scripts; nationality, date of birth, gender, ID and passport number scored with the name; thresholds per list type and per list | Sender and receiver of a payment checked by API while it is processed | Not published; no integration fees | Customer and payment screening by API, with a log of every search |
| AML Watcher | "3500+ Global Watchlists"; global and local sanctions data described as real time | Described as real time | Custom fuzzy logic; risk thresholds set by industry; batch processing | Secondary sanctions marked; ownership not stated | Basic, Premium and Enterprise plans; free trial on the first two | A firm that wants to trial a named plan before a sales call |
| ComplyAdvantage | OFAC, HMT, EU consolidated lists "and over 60 additional jurisdictions" | Described as real time | Advanced screening and matching with AI | Organizations owned or controlled by sanctioned parties; payments screening in Enterprise | Monthly tiers by monitored entities published; Enterprise on application | A fintech that starts self service and adds payments later |
| Dow Jones Risk & Compliance | Sanctions lists from its own research team; BIS and "over 400 other regulatory or enforcement bodies" | Not stated on the page read | Address screening "even if there is no match on names" | "More than 54,000 companies" owned or controlled by sanctioned parties | Not published; free trial | A bank that wants researched ownership data |
| Flagright | Sanctions, PEP, adverse media and regulatory watchlists; own or third party data | Described as continuously updated | Thresholds, algorithms and matching logic per entity; shadow mode | Onboarding, monitoring and payments | Not published | A fintech that tests thresholds before go live |
| LexisNexis Risk Solutions | 180 global sanctions lists, 1,700 enforcement lists, 250 countries and territories | Portfolio and watchlist data changes screened automatically | Thresholds by type of screening and business area | One engine for account and payment screening | Not published | An enterprise that needs cloud or on premise |
| LSEG World-Check | Records on sanctions, enforcement, PEPs, relatives and close associates, state owned enterprises | Not stated on the page read | Match review, cases and audit trail in World-Check One | Payment screening in selected workflows | Not published | A bank whose policy names World-Check data |
| Napier AI | Public sanctions lists plus private lists; list updates managed with quality checks | Not stated as an interval | AI fuzzy name matching in more than 20 languages, with transliteration | Transaction screening of all payment types | Not published | An enterprise screening many scripts, SaaS to on premise |
| Salv | Dow Jones lists maintained by Salv | Several times a day | Per field: fuzzy, exact, contains or prefix | Sanctions Control & Ownership for OFAC, EU or UK; payments screened in flight | Not published | A payments firm keeping Dow Jones data |
| sanctions.io | "80+ sanctions lists from OFAC, the EU, the UN, the UK and authorities worldwide" | Every 60 minutes | NLP and machine learning for transliteration, nicknames, spelling errors, honorifics | Customers, vendors and payments; ownership not stated | Usage based; seven day free trial | A small team that needs API screening this week |
| Sumsub | "50,000+ Global and local data sources screened" | Rescreens continuously against updated watchlists | Screening presets; fuzzy matching set to business needs | Payments and transactions screened | $1.85 per verification (Compliance plan); $299 monthly minimum | An online business buying ID checks and screening together |
| Unit21 | Consolidated global sanctions, PEP and adverse media lists | Rescreening triggered by watchlist changes | Configurable rule logic, fuzzy matching, risk based thresholds | Customers, counterparties and transactions | Not published | A team that wants screening rules beside its monitoring rules |
Source line: each vendor's page linked in its row, read on 9 November 2026, with ComplyAdvantage's, AML Watcher's and Sumsub's pricing pages for the pricing cells; complead's row comes from its client screening page and its confirmed product facts, and quotation marks show the vendor's words.
Sanctions screening providers, one by one
complead (ours)
We wrote this one ourselves. complead's screening carries 3,500+ sanctions, PEP and watchlists from 220+ jurisdictions, refreshed every 15 minutes. Regimes covered include the OFAC, EU, UN, UK, DFAT and SECO lists. Fuzzy, phonetic and transliteration matching runs inside the API call across Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek and Chinese, and the name is scored together with nationality, date of birth, gender, ID and passport number. A threshold can differ per list type and per single list. API triggers start and stop monitoring name by name, and a payment is screened while the transfer runs. Each search is logged with its user, query, time and outcome, empty results too. The API typically integrates in hours. DLL, the Rabobank owned asset finance company, left a legacy tool that missed some geographies and now screens customers through complead's API. Demo question: open the log entry for a search that found nothing.
AML Watcher
AML Watcher's site lists "3500+ Global Watchlists", with sanctions data it calls real time and secondary sanctions marked out. Matching runs on custom fuzzy logic. Risk thresholds can be set by industry, and batch processing is listed. The pricing page names Basic, Premium and Enterprise plans and offers a free trial on the first two. It fits a firm that wants to try a named plan before talking to sales. Ask what real time means, in minutes, for each list.
ComplyAdvantage
ComplyAdvantage names OFAC, HM Treasury and EU consolidated lists "and over 60 additional jurisdictions", plus organizations owned or controlled by sanctioned parties. Its self service plan has monthly tiers by monitored entities; Enterprise adds payments screening and is priced on application. Its pricing FAQ puts all functionality in the API or case management. A fintech that starts small and adds payments later fits. Ask which lists the 60 jurisdictions cover, and which UK file loads.
Dow Jones Risk & Compliance
Dow Jones's own research team compiles its sanctions lists. Its Sanctions Control and Ownership data names "more than 54,000 companies" owned or controlled by parties sanctioned by OFAC, the EU, the UK and eight other jurisdictions. Address screening flags a risk even when no name matches, and a free trial is offered with no price shown. It fits a bank that wants ownership researched for it. Ask how many hours a new listing takes to reach your feed.
Flagright
Flagright puts screening inside its monitoring platform. A team sets thresholds, algorithms and matching logic per entity. Shadow mode tests screening silently before rules go live, and threshold recommendations are drawn from match history. Data can come from global providers, internal watchlists or custom sources, across onboarding, monitoring and payments. No price is published. It suits a fintech that tunes before it switches on. In the demo, run last month's names through shadow mode.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
For LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the product is Bridger Insight XG on WorldCompliance data, counted at 180 global sanctions lists, 1,700 enforcement lists and 250 countries and territories. One engine screens accounts and payments. It runs in public or private cloud or on premise, with thresholds set by type of screening and business area, and shows no price. An enterprise whose policy rules out a shared cloud fits. Ask to see one threshold for onboarding, another for payments, and where a change is logged.
LSEG World-Check
LSEG sells World-Check data three ways. World-Check One is a platform where analysts review possible matches, manage cases and keep an audit trail. World-Check On Demand delivers the data by API into your own engine, and World-Check Verify runs real time checks without storing customer personal data. Records cover sanctions, enforcement, PEPs with relatives and close associates, and state owned enterprises. There is no price on the page. A bank whose policy already names World-Check fits. Ask which of the three your volumes need.
Napier AI
"AI fuzzy name matching across more than 20 languages, including transliteration" is the claim Napier AI Client Screening rests on. The vendor manages list updates in full, quality checks included, and keeps private lists beside public ones. Screening runs in real time or batch. Transaction screening covers all payment types, and deployment runs from SaaS to on premise, with no price published. A bank screening names in many scripts fits. In the demo, pick one transliterated name and ask what the AI matched, why, and who signs off.
Salv
Salv screens a payment while it is "still in flight", inside the payment system's own call. It maintains Dow Jones lists and refreshes them several times a day, with Sanctions Control & Ownership data for OFAC, EU or UK parties. Matching is set per field (fuzzy, exact, contains or prefix), with transliteration from Cyrillic, Greek and Chinese (Traditional). Its AI adjudication explains a match but "never closes an alert". No price is published. A payments firm keeping Dow Jones data fits, and the demo to ask for is a replay of last month's payments before go live.
sanctions.io
sanctions.io suits a small team that needs API screening this week. It screens against "80+ sanctions lists from OFAC, the EU, the UN, the UK and authorities worldwide" and says its data "is refreshed every 60 minutes". The API answers in about 350 ms by the vendor's own figure, and a batch API takes many names in one call. Matching uses natural language processing and machine learning for transliteration, nicknames, spelling errors and honorifics. Pricing is usage based, with a seven day free trial. Ask for each list's last update time.
Sumsub
Sumsub counts "50,000+ Global and local data sources screened" without saying how many are sanctions lists, so ask. It "rescreens continuously against updated watchlists". Screening presets and fuzzy matching set to business needs cover customers, legal entities, payments and transactions. The Compliance plan costs $1.85 per verification with AML and proof of address checks included, against a $299 monthly minimum. It fits an online business that buys identity checks and screening together.
Unit21
Unit21 screens customers, counterparties and transactions against global sanctions lists, and onboarding screening runs through "a single, unified API". The page describes configurable rule logic, fuzzy matching and risk based thresholds, with rescreening triggered by watchlist changes and alerts set to your policies. Screening sits in the same platform as its detection and investigation tools. No price is published. A fintech that wants its screening rules written like its monitoring rules fits. In the demo, change one threshold and ask where that change is recorded.
Which sanctions screening software fits your situation?
What is the best sanctions screening software for enterprises?
Picture a bank screening several million customers under five licenses, an illustrative case. Data depth comes first. Dow Jones sells researched ownership data, and LSEG World-Check records cover relatives and close associates. Where the software runs comes next: LexisNexis and Napier AI both offer on premise deployment, and LexisNexis also screens accounts and payments on one engine.
Which tools offer batch and API sanctions checks?
Picture a fintech onboarding 3,000 users a day through an app. It needs an API that answers inside the sign up flow and a batch call for the nightly rescreen. sanctions.io offers both and states a 60 minute refresh. ComplyAdvantage says all functionality is available via its API or case management, and Unit21 onboards through one API. Sumsub prices screening per verification.
Which tools screen inside a monitoring platform?
Picture a payments firm whose analysts already work transaction alerts in one queue. A separate screening tool means two case histories for one customer. Flagright, Salv and Unit21 sell screening as part of a monitoring platform, and Napier AI offers both in one product family. Ask whether a screening hit and a monitoring alert open in the same case.
What if you want to keep your data vendor?
Picture a bank with three years left on a Dow Jones contract that wants a new engine without new data. Salv screens on Dow Jones lists that it maintains and refreshes several times a day. Flagright calls its screening data agnostic. It takes global data providers, internal watchlists or custom sources. Ask either vendor whether the bank's Dow Jones contract carries over.
Who provides crypto sanctions screening tools?
Picture an exchange that must screen the customer's name and every wallet address it pays. On the pages read, AML Watcher lists crypto wallet screening as a use case, Sumsub lists crypto monitoring and Travel Rule products, and Flagright, sanctions.io and Unit21 name crypto as a sector they serve. complead puts sanctions, wallet and name screening for crypto firms on one engine.
When is complead not the right fit?
Three situations send a buyer elsewhere. One is a firm that wants document and biometric identity checks from its screening vendor. complead leaves that verification to the firm's own IDV provider and feeds the verified identity into its risk model, while Sumsub sells identity checks and screening in one plan.
Another is a procurement team that requires a SOC 2 report. Ask before you shortlist complead. Its listed certifications are ISO 27001 and ISO 9001, and it offers EU data residency with GDPR built in; Salv states a SOC 2 Type 2 report, and sanctions.io calls its app SOC 2 Type II compliant. The last is a buyer who wants a price before the first call. complead publishes none; Sumsub and ComplyAdvantage do.
What changed in sanctions screening in 2026?
- 28 January. The OFSI Consolidated List closed, and gov.uk now names the UK Sanctions List as the only source of UK sanctions designations.
- 17 March. OFAC settled with TradeStation Securities for $1,110,661 over 481 apparent violations from 21 June 2021 to 15 June 2022, after new mobile platform software left a second layer of location blocking ineffective while the first layer stayed disabled. OFAC highlighted the importance for firms to deploy "testing mechanisms to ensure that compliance tools are adequately implemented and functioning as intended".
- 9 October. Pegasus Worldwide Logistics agreed to pay $175,015. Its staff checked the shipper's new name by hand and got a null result, while the phone number and email on its SDN entry had not changed. OFAC called name screening "a baseline tool".
Three things to do this week:
- Write down the lists each of your licenses requires, row by row from Table 1.
- Pick the situations above that match your firm and shortlist three vendors.
- Send every vendor the same names, including one that should match only on its address, and ask for the search log of each run.
