Automate Australia sanctions screening for customer onboarding, payments and re-screening.
The official Australian sanctions list, synced every 15 minutes to keep pace with new designations.
synced 7 min ago
Australia's consolidated list of individuals, entities, and vessels designated by the UN Security Council or Foreign Minister. Maintained by DFAT.
If you confirm a match
FreezeFreeze the party's assets. Do not make them available. Notify the Australian Sanctions Office and the AFP as soon as possible.
Handle Australian sanctions compliance without flooding your team with alerts.
Every AU result includes the exact list version checked, for your audit trail.
We never store the names or personal data you submit for screening.
No downtime when you hit plan limit. Extra usage is billed automatically.
Proprietary fuzzy matching for name variations, backed by IDs and attributes.
Every AU match comes with a score and a human-readable reason.
Average response of ~200 ms, ideal for onboarding and payment screening.
Screen counterparties and transactions wherever compliance decisions happen.
| Use case | Who to screen | When to screen |
|---|---|---|
| Customer onboarding (KYC) | New customers | Before the account is opened |
| Business onboarding (KYB) | Companies, vendors, and UBOs | Before the relationship starts |
| Loan origination | Borrowers | Before a loan is approved |
| Payment processing | Senders and beneficiaries | Before a payment is released |
| Trade and exports | Buyers, consignees, and end users | Before goods are shipped |
| Ongoing re-screening | Existing customers | After each list update |
For developers
Integrate Australian sanctions screening into your application with a single POST request.
Your own reference ID comes back with every result
Choose the lists each request screens against
One JSON response with scores, reasons, and list versionExample request
REST API
POST https://api.sanctionslookup.com/v1/screen Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY { "subject": { "subject_ref": "cust_1024", "type": "INDIVIDUAL", "name": "Maria Gonzalez" }, "options": { "sources": ["au_cons"] } }
All plans cover:
OFAC
EU
UN
UK
Canada
Switzerland
Australia1 screening = 1 subject screened. No lock-ins. Never cut off if you go over.
Book a quick call to talk through your setup, or get an API key and
make your first test calls with 100 free requests.
No annual lock-ins
Free tools and guides to improve your sanctions screening.
Australian sanctions screening checks customers, counterparties and payments against the people, entities and vessels Australia has sanctioned. Australia implements UN Security Council sanctions under the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 and its own autonomous sanctions under the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 and the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011. For designated persons and entities, targeted financial sanctions apply: you can't use or deal with assets they own or control, and you can't make any asset available to them or for their benefit, directly or indirectly.
It's the list of everyone sanctioned under Australian law, maintained by the Australian Sanctions Office (ASO) within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). It combines UN Security Council listings with autonomous designations made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It covers persons, entities and vessels across country frameworks such as Russia, Ukraine, Iran, the DPRK, Myanmar and Syria, plus thematic frameworks for significant cyber incidents, serious human rights abuses and serious corruption. Each entry names the sanctions framework it falls under, which decides the measures that apply, from asset freezes to travel bans.
It includes UN Security Council listings and Australia's own counter-terrorism listings under UNSC Resolution 1373, but two gaps are easy to miss. The list leaves out anyone listed under other Australian laws, such as terrorist organisations listed under the Criminal Code. UN-sanctioned North Korean vessels also sit on a separate list, the 1718 Designated Vessels List. Both need their own check.
Australian sanctions laws apply to activities in Australia, to Australian citizens and Australian companies overseas, and on board Australian-flagged vessels and aircraft. Banks, remittance providers, digital currency exchanges, payment and fintech firms, insurers, exporters and professional services firms all screen against the Consolidated List.
Yes. Under the reformed AML/CTF Act, customer due diligence must establish, on reasonable grounds, whether the customer, its beneficial owners or anyone acting on its behalf is designated for targeted financial sanctions under an Australian sanction law. You check before providing a designated service, and you keep checking throughout the business relationship in case any of them are designated later. The new obligations started on 31 March 2026 for existing reporting entities and on 1 July 2026 for newly regulated “Tranche 2” businesses such as lawyers, accountants and real estate agents. Each API response states the exact list version checked, so you can keep it with your CDD records.
Breaching a sanctions law is a serious criminal offence. Individuals face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 2,500 penalty units or three times the value of the transaction. Companies face a fine of up to 10,000 penalty units or three times the transaction value. For companies the offence is strict liability, so no intent needs to be proven. The defence is showing you took reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence, which includes screening parties and transactions against the Consolidated List.
Yes. Australia makes its own autonomous designations on its own timeline, so the Consolidated List includes people and entities that other lists don't, and the other way round. If you're in Australia or are an Australian business abroad, Australian law applies whatever other lists show. With the sources option, one request screens the Australian list together with OFAC, UN, UK, EU, Canadian and Swiss lists, and each list in the response carries its own version details.
No. DFAT publishes the Consolidated List as an Excel (XLSX) spreadsheet and announces changes through a mailing list, with no screening API. Building your own means downloading the file, tracking every change and matching names across aliases and transliterations. Our API does that and returns scored matches against the current list version.
Whenever Australia adds, amends or removes listings, with no fixed schedule. Australia's own listings are made by legislative instrument, and DFAT then updates the spreadsheet and announces the change through its mailing list. AUSTRAC expects reporting entities to screen against the latest version, so pulling it often matters: we check it every 15 minutes, and every response states the list version it used. Re-screen existing customers after each update, since amendments can add aliases.
Compare the name, aliases, date of birth, place of birth, citizenship and address with the listing, and check which sanctions framework the entry falls under. If the same person or entity also appears on another list, use the extra identifiers in those entries to confirm. If it's the same party, freeze and stop all dealings. If you still can't tell, don't proceed: the ASO advises getting legal advice before dealing with a possible match.
If you hold a controlled asset, meaning one owned or controlled by a designated person or entity, freeze it, tell the Australian Sanctions Office at [email protected] and notify the Australian Federal Police (AFP) as soon as possible. Asset holders must also give the AFP specific details about the asset under regulation 24 of the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations or regulation 42 of the Charter of the United Nations (Dealing with Assets) Regulations 2008. AUSTRAC reporting entities must also submit a suspicious matter report (SMR) if they suspect on reasonable grounds that they hold information relevant to a sanctions breach. You can't deal with a frozen asset or return it to the customer without a sanctions permit from the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Yes. Targeted financial sanctions cover assets owned or controlled by a designated person or entity, and making assets available to them indirectly is prohibited too. Australia has no percentage threshold like OFAC's 50% rule: ownership and control depend on the facts, so a payment to an unlisted company can still benefit its designated owner. An unlisted subsidiary won't match on its own, so screen beneficial owners (UBOs) too.
Screen them as vessels, not companies. Australia designates sanctioned vessels under the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations, including 60 vessels linked to Russia's shadow fleet in June 2025, and can bar them from Australian ports. Ships are often renamed and reflagged, so the API screens vessels as their own subject type, matched by name and IMO number. Screen the owner and manager too, since links to listed companies won't show in the vessel record.
Average response time is about 200 ms, fast enough to screen during onboarding or before a payment is released. The batch endpoint screens up to 50 subjects per request, which suits re-screening your customer base after a DFAT list update. One screening is one subject, new accounts get 100 free screenings, and paid plans start at $149 a month.
SanctionsLookup
