Watchlist

Watchlist monitoring is a critical piece in many onboarding processes. Using Middesk, you can screen against many watchlists, including the Consolidated Screening List, all of which are listed below.

Code	Title	Agency	Organization
CAP	Capta List	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
DPL	Denied Persons List	Bureau of Industry and Security	U.S. Department of Commerce
DTC	AECA/ITAR Debarred	Directorate of Defense Trade Controls	U.S. Department of State
EL	Entity List	Bureau of Industry and Security	U.S. Department of Commerce
FSE	Foreign Sanctions Evaders	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
ISN	Nonproliferation Sanctions	Bureau of International Security and Non-Proliferation	U.S. Department of State
MEU	Military End User	Bureau of Industry and Security	U.S. Department of Commerce
NS-CCMC	Non-SDN Communist Military Companies Sanctions	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of the Treasury
NS-ISA	Non-SDN Iranian Sanctions	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
NS-MBS	Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
PLC	Palestinian Legislative Council	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
SDN	Specially Designated Nationals	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
SSI	Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List	Office of Foreign Assets Control	U.S. Department of Treasury
UVL	Unverified List	Bureau of Industry and Security	U.S. Department of Commerce

When "hits" are found based on a fuzzy search of a business' name and officers. If a DOB is included with a submitted person, we will add an extra check to make sure the DOB exactly matches a hit. The watchlist results will be returned in the API response.

If only a subset of these lists are necessary for your compliance program, you can configure which lists and agencies the watchlist will run against on the dashboard in your account settings.

The watchlist object

The watchlist response has a container for displaying top-level information around watching screening.

{
  "id": "3fc438eb-1234-4fc1-bb5e-fcac60db2e2e",
  "object": "watchlist",
  "lists": [
    {
      "abbr": "DPL",
      "title": "Denied Persons List",
      "agency": "Bureau of Industry and Security",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "BIS",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Commerce"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "DTC",
      "title": "AECA/ITAR Debarred",
      "agency": "Directorate of Defense Trade Controls",
      "results": [
        {
          "id": "a6be972d-2eff-4785-a57f-f2b834f3fb96",
          "object": "watchlist_result",
          "listed_at": null,
          "entity_name": "Gia An Du",
          "entity_aliases": [
            "Anthony Huynh",
            "Simon Du",
            "Gia Simon Du"
          ],
          "agency_list_url": "http://bit.ly/307FuRQ",
          "agency_information_url": "http://bit.ly/307FuRQ"
        }
      ],
      "agency_abbr": "DDTC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of State"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "EL",
      "title": "Entity List",
      "agency": "Bureau of Industry and Security",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "BIS",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Commerce"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "SDN",
      "title": "Specially Designated Nationals",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "NSISA",
      "title": "Non-SDN Iranian Sanctions Act",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "FSE",
      "title": "Foreign Sanctions Evaders",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "ISN",
      "title": "Nonproliferation Sanctions",
      "agency": "Bureau of International Security and Non-Proliferation",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "ISN",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of State"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "P561",
      "title": "Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Part 561",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "PLC",
      "title": "Palestinian Legislative Council",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "SSI",
      "title": "Sectoral Sanctions Identifications",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "UVL",
      "title": "Unverified List",
      "agency": "Bureau of Industry and Security",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "BIS",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Commerce"
    },
    {
      "abbr": "CAP",
      "title": "Capta List",
      "agency": "Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "results": [],
      "agency_abbr": "OFAC",
      "organization": "U.S. Department of Treasury"
    }
  ],
  "agencies": [
    {
      "org": "U.S. Department of Treasury",
      "abbr": "OFAC",
      "name": "Office of Foreign Assets Control"
    },
    {
      "org": "U.S. Department of Commerce",
      "abbr": "BIS",
      "name": "Bureau of Industry and Security"
    },
    {
      "org": "U.S. Department of State",
      "abbr": "DDTC",
      "name": "Directorate of Defense Trade Controls"
    },
    {
      "org": "U.S. Department of State",
      "abbr": "ISN",
      "name": "Bureau of International Security and Non-Proliferation"
    }
  ],
  "hit_count": 1
}

Attribute	Type	Description
id	`string`	Unique identifier for the object
object	`string`, value is "watchlist"	A definition of the type of object returned
lists	`object[]`	The details of any potential matches of that entity against the search list
hit_count	`number`	The number of watchlist hits found

The list object

Inside the watchlist object, many lists are found under the lists key. Each list, has the following attributes.

Attribute	Type	Description
abbr	`string`	The watchlist abbreviation/code (see table above)
title	`string`	The full name for the watchlist (see table above)
agency	`string`	The agency responsible for maintaining the watchlist (see table above)
agency_abbr	`string`	The agency's abbreviated name (see table above)
organization	`string`	The governing organization for the agency
results	`object[]`	Hits or results for the watchlist based on business name or officer name match

The result object

As mentioned above, results will be included with each watchlist. When hits are found, one or many result objects will be found in this collection. When no hits are found, the collection will be empty.

Attribute	Type	Description
id	`string`	Unique identifier for the object
object	`string`, value is `watchlist_result`	A definition of the type of object returned
listed_at	`timestamp`	When the result was listed
entity_name	`string`	The proper name for the entity matched
entity_aliases	`string[]`	A list of aliases for the person or business
agency_list_url	`string`	A short link to the agency's posting for the record
agency_information_url	`string`	A short link to the agency's information
score	`string`	The confidence score for the result
addresses	`string[]`	Addresses associated with the watchlist hit
url	`string`	Url link to the watchlist hit

Configuring watchlist settings to reduce false positives

Middesk offers several configuration options to reduce false positives, including:

Date of Birth Filter for Submitted People
Name Fuzzy Match Tolerance
Selecting specific federal agencies and watchlist lists to run business names and individuals against each business

In order to configure your watchlist settings, visit the settings page in the dashboard. The configuration selections will be applied globally across all businesses.

Date of Birth Watchlist Filter for Submitted People:
In order to utilize the date of birth configuration for Watchlist, you will also need to pass in the additional field of "dob" in the people object either in the Create a Business or Update a Business API calls. Similar to the name field for people, you can utilize the date of birth field for more than just one submitted "person." After setting the Date of Birth Fuzzy Match Tolerance settings, you will only receive positive watchlist hits if the submitted date of birth field is within the setting's parameters.

Create/Patch a Business Request:

{"people":
 [
        {
            "name": "Jane Doe",
            "dob": "1990-01-01"
        },
        {
            "name": "John Doe",
            "dob": "1988-10-23"
        }
 ]
}

Watchlist Selection & Exclusions
To select or exclude a specific watchlist from being globally applied to all identity reports, we have the ability to select each agency or watchlist. These changes will be applied and reflected across the identity reports in both the dashboard and API. Note that only users within the Developer and Admin roles on the dashboard will be authorized to make these changes on the Watchlist settings.