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On 10 October 2014, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released Consolidated Sanctions List Data Files in order to make it easier to comply with OFAC’s sanctions regulations. OFAC is now offering all of its non-SDN sanctions lists in a consolidated set of data files “the Consolidated Sanctions List.” These consolidated files comply with all OFAC’s existing data standards. In the future, if OFAC creates a new non-SDN style list, the office will add the new data associated with that list to these consolidated data files if appropriate. While the consolidated sanctions list data files are not part of OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons “the SDN List,” the records in these consolidated files may also appear on the SDN List. Included in the Consolidated Sanctions List Data Files:
The goal of this consolidation effort is to reduce the number of list-related files that must be downloaded in order to maintain an automated sanctions screening program. In the future, if OFAC creates a new sanctions list where the action required of a U.S. person does not necessarily entail blocking, the office will add the new data associated with that list to these consolidated data files if appropriate. Another goal of this effort is to ensure that all sanctions list records are included in OFAC’s Sanctions List Search tool. As of this announcement all of OFAC’s lists are now available in Sanctions List Search. In approximately 6 months, OFAC will cease issuing independent data files for the FSE List, the SSI List and the NS-PLC List. During the transition period, OFAC will produce these data on both the Consolidated Sanctions List and on the appropriate individual lists. The new Consolidated Sanctions List data files can be accessed on this page. In addition, the Consolidated Sanctions List data files are available on OFAC’s File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site in a folder called, “consolidated_list.” Please visit the Consolidated Sanctions List Specification file for the information about data file nomenclature, column headers and field widths. The XSD specification file for the XML version of the Consolidated Sanctions List may be found here. OFAC will continue to provide and update independent human readable (.pdf and .txt) versions of the FSE, SSI, NS-ISA, NS-PLC and Part 561 lists and their respective archive of changes files. These file formats will not be affected by the creation of the consolidated data files and will continue to be available even after the transition period. Some of OFAC’s non-SDN list products have never been offered in a data format before. Other non-SDN lists have not been updated recently and were produced by older information systems. As such, OFAC’s list consolidation effort has resulted in some minor administrative changes to the non-SDN list data. Below is a list of unique ID numbers (UIDs) that correspond to records that were modified during the consolidation. OFAC has also upgraded its Sanctions List Search tool to provide the users the ability to search for a name on the SDN List, on the Consolidated List, or on both lists simultaneously. By incorporating the Consolidated List, users will be able to look for potential name matches on the SSI, FSE, NS-PLC, NS-ISA and Part 561 lists. Sanctions List Search previously only included the SDN and FSE lists. Please see the related FAQs for additional information on algorithms, scoring, and other technical details regarding Sanctions List Search. |
