Blog August 2026 PEP and Sanctions Lists

PEP and Sanctions Lists

August 18th, 2026 By Tony Byng
PEP and Sanctions Lists

The PEP - or Politically Exposed Persons list relies on name-matching across multiple global sources, as there is no single, centralised list.

It doesn't check against addresses or countries, otherwise, as soon as someone moves address they might not be found on the list. PEP searches may come up with false positives because if there is a Fred Smith on the PEP list and you are identity checking a Fred Smith then it will report the matches but you then need to use that information (such as the country it relates to) along with talking to your client to identify whether they are the same Fred Smith

The sanctions checks will check the UK Sanctions List, EU and OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control - a US Treasury Department agency), Australian, Canadian, French, and US lists and several international lists including:

Australian National Security Terrorism List

DFAT (dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade) Australia Consolidated Sanctions List

EU External Action Service - Consolidated list of Sanctions

United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 311 Special Measures

HM Treasury Ukraine Sanctions

OFAC Consolidated List

OFAC SDN List (Specially Designated National - an individual, company or group targeted and blocked by OFAC)

Public Safety Canada Listed Entities

United States Department of State Counter Terrorism Rewards Program Persons

DFATD Canada Special Economic Measures Act Designations

France Tresor Direction Generale Liste Unique de Gels (French Treasury Directorate General Single Asset Freezing List)

United Nations Consolidated

United States Bureau of Industry and Security The Denied Persons List

United States Department of State Terror Exclusion List

Sanction Related Entities

Canadian Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act

United States Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List

United States Bureau of Industry and Security Unverified List

United States Department of State Nonproliferation Sanctions List

Canada Sanctions Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act

European Council Restrictive Measures on Russian entities destabilising the situation in Ukraine

United Nations Security Council List of Designated Vessels

Australia Autonomous Sanctions for Russia Crimea and Sevastopol

European Council List of Designated Vessels

United Kingdom Home Office List of Proscribed Terrorist Organisations

United States Coast Guard Prohibited Vessels (Suspended)

Australia Autonomous Sanctions North Korea Designated Vessels

Arab states Joint Sanctions List 2017 Qatar Diplomatic Crisis organisations (Suspended)

Canada Regulations Implementing the United Nations Resolutions on the Suppression of Terrorism

United Kingdom Sanctions Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018

OFAC Non-SDN Communist Chinese Military Companies List (Suspended)

United States Bureau of Industry and Security Military End User List

United States Department of State Counter Terrorism Rewards Program Organisations

United States Bureau of Industry and Security List of Commercial and Private Aircraft in potential violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR)

European Council Restrictive Measures in View of the Situation in Belarus

We carry out a PEP and Sanctions check when you carry out an identity check with us but we can also monitor this system constantly to identify if a person flags up on a list after you have carried out the initial check.