Watchlist

Middesk supports two watchlist products. As part of the Business Verification - Verify package, we support many key US Federal Watchlists. In the case that more comprehensive screenings are required, you can leverage our Enhanced Screenings product to run extensive searches against thousands of Global Watchlists.

Lists included in Business Verification - Verify/Identity

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-CMIC	Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List	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

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.

Lists included in Enhanced Screenings

Enhanced Screenings contains thousands of lists to run against. The account will be set up with a set of default lists from key global agencies to screen against, however, thousands more lists can be turned on as required by your Compliance department. To see what lists are enabled or available, go to the dashboard Settings > Screenings > Watchlist and Enhanced Screenings to find more information. If you do not have an account yet, ask your sales representative.

Migrating to Enhanced Screenings from our other Watchlist feature

Some fields in the Watchlist objects are now nullable in our API for Enhanced Screenings. Be sure to look below to see the fields that are now nullable in Enhanced Screenings that were not previously and see if you need to make any API changes before turning on Enhanced Screenings.

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	Guaranteed
abbr	`string`	The watchlist abbreviation/code (see table above)	no - For Enhanced Screenings, this field may be null
title	`string`	The full name for the watchlist (see table above)	yes
agency	`string`	The agency responsible for maintaining the watchlist (see table above)	yes
agency_abbr	`string`	The agency's abbreviated name (see table above)	no - For Enhanced Screenings, this field may be null
organization	`string`	The governing organization for the agency	no - For Enhanced Screenings, this field may be null
results	`object[]`	Hits or results for the watchlist based on business name or officer name match	yes - may be `[]`

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	Guaranteed
id	`string`	Unique identifier for the object	yes
object	`string`, value is `watchlist_result`	A definition of the type of object returned	yes
listed_at	`timestamp`	When the result was listed	no
entity_name	`string`	The proper name for the entity matched	yes
entity_aliases	`string[]`	A list of aliases for the person or business	yes - may be `[]`
agency_list_url	`string`	A short link to the agency's posting for the record	no
agency_information_url	`string`	A short link to the agency's information	no
addresses	`string[]`	Addresses associated with the watchlist hit	yes - may be `[]`
url	`string`	Url link to the watchlist hit	no
score	`float`	A score to indicate how similar a submitted name is to a sanction name	yes

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"
        }
 ]
}