All Sanctions Lists, Other Official Lists and Other Exclusion Lists must be publicly-available in order to be included within Dow Jones Risk & Compliance products.

The Sanctions Lists category includes lists of persons and entities subject to comprehensive or targeted restrictive measures. People and entities are added to Sanctions Lists for various reasons, including: having links to terrorism, terrorist financing, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms trafficking, narco-trafficking or war crimes. Such lists are issued by government agencies or bodies, including Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), regulators or police, and are government instructions that regulated institutions have a legal obligation to screen against. Examples of the effects of Sanctions Lists include the freezing of funds and economic resources, admission restrictions on certain persons, arms embargoes, trade/export restrictions and a ban on the provision of certain services to certain countries.

Financial sanctions refers to either i) the freezing or blocking of funds and/or economic resources or ii) the rejection of prohibited business transactions, under conditions defined by the regulator.

These lists contain the names of persons on whom travel restrictions have been placed by governments. They are often placed in conjunction with financial sanctions. Vessels may also be subject to restrictive measures regarding entry to ports if designated by a sanctioning body.

This type of list contains persons and/or entities barred from certain activities by government bodies. Examples of the type of activity that may be barred are: exporting out of/importing into the jurisdiction in question or a complete operating ban in the jurisdiction. Examples of the kind of body that issues this type of list are: interior, defence and finance ministries and international organisations such as the European Union. Examples of the kind of action that may result in a person/entity being listed are: violating arms export regulations or arms embargoes, suspected terrorist activity, suspected dealing in weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the unsafe operation of air carriers.

This type of list covers arms embargoes or other trade restrictions against certain countries or parties. Examples of the type of body issuing this kind of list are: finance/trade ministries and international organisations such as the United Nations.

The Other Official Lists category includes lists of persons and entities associated with potentially high-risk activities such as serious crime and financial or professional enforcement actions or warnings. Examples of the type of body issuing this kind of list are supervisory authorities/regulators and law enforcement agencies.

These are penalties issued by government regulatory authorities and supervisory bodies against the persons and/or entities they regulate. Examples of the kind of body that publishes this type of list are securities commissions, stock exchanges, insurance regulators, futures industry regulators, banking supervisory bodies, finance ministries and central banks. Examples of the kind of action resulting in an enforcement order are: insider dealing, fraud, unregistered trading and violations of regulatory requirements. Examples of the kind of penalty that may be incurred are: jail sentences, fines, placing under receivership, withdrawal of registration, cease-trade orders and temporary or permanent bans on holding directorships.

This type of list contains persons and/or entities who are barred from certain activities by government bodies. Examples of the type of activity that may be barred are: importing/exporting of certain goods/services, doing business with the list-issuing body or any government agency in that jurisdiction or an operating ban in that jurisdiction. Examples of the kind of body that issues this type of list are: export-control or non-proliferation authorities, interior ministries, international financial institutions and gaming commissions. Examples of the kind of action that may result in a person/entity being listed are: violating arms export regulations or arms embargoes, contravening the list-issuing body’s guidelines and the violation of gaming laws.

This covers wanted lists issued by international, national, regional or local law enforcement agencies and other bodies responsible for investigating crimes or bringing the names of fugitives to the public’s attention. Examples of this type of body are: police departments, drug enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, interior ministries, defence ministries, corruption commissions, crimestoppers programmes, attorney-general’s offices and prison services.

This type of list contains persons/entities that may be subject to extended licence requirements for certain exports/imports, or that may require further investigation before certain exports can take place. The types of body issuing these lists are likely to be export-control or nonproliferation authorities.

Watchlist’s War Crimes content is taken from official list sources only. All war crimes-related Lists are categorized as either Sanctions Lists or Other Official Lists. Additionally, each profile contains the extra category of War Crimes. These lists contain the names of people who have been formally charged with war crimes. They may be in custody or at large. Such lists are generally published by foreign affairs ministries, international or special courts or attorney-general's offices.

These lists are published by regulatory authorities, central banks and investor protection organisations and contain the names of persons/entities that are not authorised to provide certain financial services in the country of jurisdiction.
These lists aim to warn potential investors of the risk they may be taking in investing in these companies.

The category was added in April 2013 as a result of client requests to include lists that are not used for Anti-Money Laundering purposes and which were therefore not included in our Sanctions and Other Official Lists coverage. A separate category was created in order to allow clients to easily include or exclude the content that will be introduced as part of this category.