EU Financial Sanctions Screening API

Screen individuals and entities against the European Union's Consolidated Financial Sanctions List — the definitive sanctions register for all 27 EU member states.

About the EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List

The EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List is maintained by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA). It aggregates all restrictive measures adopted by the Council of the European Union under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), making it the single authoritative source for EU-wide sanctions designations.

The legal basis for EU sanctions derives from Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which empowers the Council to adopt restrictive measures against third countries, natural persons, legal entities, groups, or non-state bodies. Once a Council Regulation is published in the Official Journal of the European Union, it becomes directly applicable law in all member states — no national transposition is required. This means a single designation simultaneously creates binding legal obligations across the entire European Economic Area.

The EU list includes individuals and entities designated under country-specific regimes (such as those targeting Russia, Belarus, Myanmar, and Syria), thematic regimes (such as counter-terrorism, chemical weapons proliferation, and cyber-attacks), and regimes implementing UN Security Council resolutions. Each entry contains the designated party's name, identifying information such as date of birth, nationality, and passport numbers, as well as the specific legal acts under which the designation was made. As of 2026, the list contains over 2,000 designated entities and individuals, though this number has grown significantly since the expansion of Russia-related sanctions beginning in 2022.

The European Commission updates the consolidated list promptly after each Council decision. In periods of active sanctions adoption — such as during the successive rounds of Russia sanctions packages — updates can occur multiple times per month. The Commission also publishes detailed guidance notes and FAQs to assist economic operators in understanding the scope of each restrictive measure, including asset freeze obligations, travel bans, and sectoral restrictions.

Why EU Sanctions Screening Matters

EU sanctions are legally binding across all member states, and enforcement is handled at the national level by each country's competent authority — such as the French Direction Generale du Tresor, Germany's Bundesbank, or the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets. Penalties for non-compliance vary by jurisdiction but are uniformly severe. In France, violations can result in criminal penalties of up to seven years' imprisonment and fines of up to EUR 1.5 million. Germany imposes fines of up to EUR 500,000 for administrative violations and criminal penalties for willful breaches. The Netherlands applies penalties proportionate to the gravity of the infraction, with criminal prosecution for serious cases.

Beyond direct penalties, EU sanctions violations expose institutions to significant reputational damage, loss of correspondent banking relationships, and potential secondary consequences from other jurisdictions. Financial institutions that fail to adequately screen against the EU list risk regulatory action from the European Central Bank, national central banks, and national financial supervisory authorities.

Who Needs to Screen

• Banks and credit institutions operating within the EU or EEA
• Payment service providers and e-money institutions licensed in the EU
• Investment firms and fund managers regulated under MiFID II
• Insurance and reinsurance companies operating in EU markets
• Crypto-asset service providers under MiCA regulation
• Non-financial businesses subject to EU Anti-Money Laundering Directives
• Exporters of dual-use goods, military items, or luxury goods to sanctioned jurisdictions
• Any entity with operations or customers in the European Union

How Veridex Screens the EU List

Veridex ingests updates to the EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List within minutes of publication by the European Commission. Our screening engine handles the multilingual complexity of EU designations — names may appear in Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, or other scripts across official EU languages. We apply transliteration normalization, phonetic matching, and alias expansion to ensure comprehensive coverage. Each API response identifies the specific Council Regulation and legal basis for the designation, along with all known aliases and identifying information.

Sample Screening Result

Below is an example API response showing a match against a publicly known EU-sanctioned entity.

// POST /v1/screen
{
  "query": "Igor Sechin",
  "lists": ["EU_SANCTIONS"],
  "hits": [
    {
      "list": "EU_SANCTIONS",
      "entity_name": "SECHIN, Igor Ivanovich",
      "type": "Individual",
      "score": 0.98,
      "programs": ["EU-UKRAINE"],
      "aliases": [
        "Igor Ivanovitch SETCHINE",
        "Igor Iwanowitsch SETSCHIN"
      ],
      "remarks": "DOB 07 Sep 1960; CEO of Rosneft; Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014",
      "eu_reference": "EU.8356.28",
      "match_basis": "exact_name"
    }
  ],
  "screened_at": "2026-04-08T12:00:00Z",
  "latency_ms": 52
}