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Sanctions are used against individuals, organizations, businesses, and entities that are prohibited or 'sanctioned' from certain activities or industries. Any individual or entity that is subject to Sanctions will be listed, as will any relatives and close associates (RCA). There are several Sanction lists issued by Governments and organizations around the world, these include the United States' Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List, the consolidated lists used by the United Kingdom, the European Union lists, and the United Nations.

Screening customers and potential customers against sanction lists is a vital part of the AML process but can be difficult to do manually. This is because checking individual names and aliases can be ineffective, time-consuming and give rise to errors, false positives and lengthy onboarding processes. The easiest, quickest, and most accurate way to screen against sanction lists is to use an electronic screening solution. The SmartSearch system uses the Dow Jones WatchList for Sanction Screening, this is compiled from more than 1,100 sanctions lists from across the globe. The Dow Jones has a policy of around the clock updates. All AML checks on the SmartSearch system will be automatically screened against global PEP, Sanction, SIP, and RCA lists and the daily ongoing morning will alert users of any further changes. SmartSearch streamlines the Sanctions Screening process by automatically performing Enhanced Due Diligence against false positive matches and informs the client firm if a true match has been found or if further investigation is needed. This saves client firms a huge amount of time and money and gives them the peace of mind that they are always compliant.