LEXolution Sanctions Lists

Purpose of This Guide

This guide describes how to set up and use the automated or manual download of sanctions lists, and provides background information on the subject matter.

Background

Every law firm must take reasonable steps to ensure that it does not handle mandates involving individuals or organizations that appear on sanctions lists.
As a general rule, firms must at minimum check the lists that correspond to their office location — most commonly the consolidated EU sanctions list. However, it is also recommended to consider the locations of clients. For example, for US-based mandates, US sanctions lists should also be checked to avoid compliance conflicts between the firm and its clients.
Sanctions lists are included by default as collision lists in the conflict check (CFC).
Potential conflicts identified from the lists are displayed in the results view alongside other potential conflicts (e.g., LEXolution contacts).

The following sanctions lists are available for download: - Consolidated EU Sanctions List (default) - Consolidated UN Sanctions List - Consolidated US Sanctions List - Consolidated UK Sanctions List - Consolidated CH Sanctions List

Sanctions Lists

EU Sanctions List

Downloading the EU sanctions list requires an EU account. Once logged in with this EU account, a URL with a token must be generated for the download.

Figure: Available download options for the EU sanctions list. The required URL with the token can be found in the lower section (red arrow).

The generated URL for the Version 1.1 format "XML (Based on XSD)" must be entered in the following server configuration parameter.

<add key="EuSanctionsListAddress" value=""></add>

🛈 Note

Since LEXolution version 6.0, LEXolution offers the option to automatically download the consolidated EU sanctions list on a daily basis. This ensures that CFC checks always reflect the most up-to-date version of the EU sanctions list. The automated download requires a one-time registration of the firm on the European Commission's website.

The exact setup procedure is described in Chapter 3. The automatic download of the EU sanctions list is available by default in LEXolution as of version 6.0.

US Sanctions Lists

The following lists are available: - Consolidated List (CONSOLIDATED.XML, XML version of the Consolidated Sanctions List) - SDN List | Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN.XML XML version of the SDN List)

Source: https://sanctionslist.ofac.treas.gov/Home/

This sanctions list download must be activated by applying a license key.

UN Sanctions Lists

The following list is available: - Consolidated UN Sanctions List (https://scsanctions.un.org/resources/xml/en/consolidated.xml)

This sanctions list download must be activated by applying a license key.

UK Sanctions List

The following list is available: - UK Sanctions List (https://sanctionslist.fcdo.gov.uk/docs/UK-Sanctions-List.xml)

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-sanctions-list

This sanctions list download must be activated by applying a license key.

CH Sanctions List

The following list is available:

• CH Sanctions List (https://www.sesam.search.admin.ch/sesam-searchweb/pages/downloadXmlGesamtliste.xhtml?lang=de&action=downloadXmlGesamtlisteAction)

This sanctions list download must be activated by applying a license key.

Additional Sanctions Lists

The following additional sanctions lists are available for automated download: - Consolidated UN Sanctions List - US Consolidated Sanctions List () - US SDN Sanctions List - Consolidated UK Sanctions List - Consolidated CH Sanctions List

Adding the above lists to the sanctions list download must be activated by STP GmbH.
By default, only the EU sanctions list is downloaded.
If you are interested, please contact STP GmbH support.

Mappings and Assignments

A subject-matter mapping has been applied to all entries across all sanctions lists to ensure that the information required for the CFC is correctly transformed from the sanctions list XML files into the collision lists in LEXolution.
The XML structures of the various sanctions lists differ significantly from one another.
In all cases, however, the last name(s) and first name(s) of the included individuals and organizations are mapped.
Aliases, spelling variants, and synonyms are taken into account. Duplicate entries are consolidated to avoid overloading the results views in LEXolution.
In addition to the last and first name, a subject-matter identifier and, in many cases, a brief subject-matter description are also transferred, making it easier to classify a potential conflict in the results view.

Example:
List entry with description and assignment in the EU sanctions list (collision list in LEXolution)

Example:
Subject-matter identifier in the EU sanctions list (PDF format from the web)

Download

Manual Download

In the Collision Lists view, the Download Collision Lists button is available.

Automatic Download

For the automated download of the lists, the following server configuration parameters must be configured:

<add key="IsSanctionsListDownloadEnabled" value="false"></add>
<add key="SanctionsListDownloadTime" value="03:00"></add>

• Key IsSanctionsListDownloadEnabled: value true enables the automatic download. Value false disables the automatic download.
• Key SanctionsListDownloadTime: the value specifies the start time for the download in [hh:mm] format. A valid time must always be entered, even if the automatic download is not enabled.

🛈 Note

StopWordsConfig

To prevent the phonetic search in the CFC from returning an excessive number of potential matches when checking against sanctions lists, the StopWords configuration file (StopWordsConfig.XML) should be set as strictly as possible in the "CCCollisionListEntryValue" search profile section.
In addition, first names and last names that appear frequently in sanctions lists should be added to the weak words list.
This will further improve the accuracy of results in the results views.