Sanctions screening: why your counterparties need a check every day

What sanctions screening is

Sanctions screening means comparing the names of the people and companies you deal with against official lists of sanctioned or restricted parties. These lists are published by public authorities: national governments, regional bodies such as the European Union and the United Nations Security Council.

A listed party can be subject to measures such as asset freezes or bans on making funds and services available. Restrictions can also extend to companies owned or controlled by listed parties.

Why a one-time check is not enough

Lists are updated whenever authorities adopt new measures, which can happen on any working day. Names are added, details such as aliases and addresses change, and some entries are removed.

If you only check at onboarding, your file shows that a customer was clean on that date. It says nothing about today. In several jurisdictions penalties can apply even when a company did not know it was dealing with a listed party, so the gap between checks is a real exposure.

Daily screening closes that gap: every morning all your names are compared with the current lists, and you hear about a change within a day instead of at the next annual review.

Who needs to screen

Sanctions apply to all companies under the jurisdiction that adopts them, not only to banks. In practice screening is common in:

• finance teams that pay suppliers and receive payments from customers abroad;
• procurement teams that onboard new suppliers;
• sales teams that sign distributors, agents and resellers;
• logistics and export teams that ship goods across borders;
• regulated companies that must identify their business customers.

Large customers and banks increasingly ask their suppliers how they screen. A documented daily process is a simple answer.

What good screening looks like

The lists we check

We publish only the lists that are actually loaded, with their update date and number of entries. The table below is read live from the screening engine.

Screening lists loaded today

Where open official sources exist, the service also checks politically exposed persons and insolvency registers, and it searches adverse news in 16 languages. Each source appears on the status page only when it is loaded.

How to set up daily screening in an afternoon

1. Sign in with your business email or a Google or Apple account. You start with $50 of free usage, no card required.
2. Export your customers, suppliers and partners from your ERP or CRM as a CSV file, or paste the list.
3. Upload it in the dashboard, or sync it by API if you want it to stay current automatically.
4. Choose how you want alerts: one email per alert, a daily summary or none, plus a webhook if you use one.
5. Review the first matches, clear the false positives with a note and confirm what needs action.
6. Export the audit log whenever your auditors or a customer ask for evidence.

Need to check one name before a meeting or a payment? Use the instant check, which does not save the name.

What it costs

With pay as you go, each monitored name costs $25 per month, charged every week, with no monthly fee. Subscriptions start with Screening Base for 100 names; packages add dossiers and regulatory monitoring. The current prices are on the pricing page.

The $50 of free usage lets you load your first names and see real results before adding a card.

What screening does not do

A match is a signal, not a verdict. Always verify it on the official source before acting. Unicorn Intelligence is an information tool: decisions and legal obligations, including sanctions compliance, remain with your company.

For a deeper view on a single counterparty, order a company dossier. The complete guide explains all five services.

Frequently asked questions

How often should we screen our counterparties?

Every day is a sensible default, because lists can change on any working day. Unicorn Intelligence compares all your names with the current lists on schedule and alerts you only when something new appears.

Which lists does Unicorn Intelligence use?

Official sanctions and restricted party lists published by public authorities. The lists actually loaded, with update date and number of entries, are shown live on the screening page and on the status page.

How are false positives handled?

Each potential match has a score from 0 to 1 and the reasons behind it. Your team confirms or clears it with a note in the review queue, and the decision goes to the audit log.

Can we upload our names by CSV?

Yes. You can upload a CSV file, paste a list or sync by API. You can also check a single name instantly without saving it.

Does daily screening make us compliant with sanctions law?

No tool can do that on its own. Screening is an information tool that helps your team find and document potential matches; decisions and legal obligations remain with your company.