Automate Canada sanctions screening for customer onboarding, payments and re-screening.
The official Canadian sanctions list, synced every 15 minutes to keep pace with new designations.
synced 7 min ago
Canada's consolidated list of individuals, entities, and ships designated under SEMA and the Sergei Magnitsky Law. Published by Global Affairs Canada.
If you confirm a match
Stop dealingsStop all dealings in the party's property. Do not make goods or services available. Disclose to the RCMP or CSIS without delay.
Handle Canadian sanctions compliance without flooding your team with alerts.
Every CA 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 CA 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 Canadian 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": ["ca_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.
Canadian sanctions screening checks customers, counterparties and payments against the people, entities and ships Canada has sanctioned. Canada's own sanctions are made under the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) and the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (JVCFOA), known as the Sergei Magnitsky Law, while UN Security Council sanctions apply through the United Nations Act. A listing triggers a dealings prohibition: you can't deal in the person's property, enter into or facilitate related transactions, or make goods, services or financial services available to them.
It's the list of everyone sanctioned under SEMA and the Magnitsky Law, published by Global Affairs Canada. It covers about 20 programs, the largest being the Russia regulations, alongside Belarus, Iran, China, Myanmar, Venezuela, Haiti, Moldova, Sudan and others, plus listings for gross human rights violations and significant corruption under the Magnitsky Law. Global Affairs Canada publishes it for administrative purposes only: the regulations are the legal authority, so the regulation named in each entry decides which prohibitions apply.
No, and it's an easy gap to miss. The consolidated list leaves out people sanctioned under the United Nations Act and terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code by Public Safety Canada. To cover UN sanctions, screen the UN Security Council Consolidated List alongside it, which the API can do in the same request. The Criminal Code list of entities is published separately and needs its own check.
Every person in Canada and every Canadian outside Canada, which includes Canadian citizens and companies incorporated in Canada wherever they operate. Banks, credit unions, money services businesses, payment and crypto firms, securities dealers, insurers and exporters all screen against the list.
Breaching SEMA is a criminal offence. On summary conviction, the penalty is a fine of up to $25,000, up to one year in prison, or both. On indictment, it's up to five years in prison. SEMA also lets the government seize and forfeit property linked to listed persons.
Yes. Canada makes its own designations on its own timeline, so its list includes people and entities that other lists don't, and the other way round. If you're in Canada or are a Canadian business abroad, Canadian law applies whatever other lists show. With the sources option, one request screens the Canadian list together with OFAC, UN, UK, EU, Swiss and Australian lists, and each list in the response carries its own version details.
No. Global Affairs Canada publishes the list as HTML, PDF and XML, with no screening API. Building your own means parsing the XML, tracking every change and matching names across aliases and transliterations. Our API does that and returns scored matches against the current list version.
Whenever Canada adds, amends or removes listings, with no fixed schedule. Listings are made by regulation, usually take effect when the regulation is registered, and are then published in the Canada Gazette. Global Affairs Canada warns that the consolidated list may not reflect the latest regulations, 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 and date of birth with the listing, and check which regulation and schedule it comes from. The Canadian list gives far fewer identifiers than OFAC or UK entries, with no passport or ID numbers, so if the same person also appears on another list, use those entries to confirm. If it's the same person, stop all dealings and disclose. If you still can't tell, don't proceed until you've resolved it.
Anyone in Canada and any Canadian abroad must disclose to the RCMP or CSIS, without delay, any property they have reason to believe belongs to a listed person and any related transaction. FINTRAC reporting entities, such as banks, money services businesses and securities dealers, must also file a Listed Person or Entity Property Report with FINTRAC immediately, a duty that has covered SEMA and Magnitsky Law listings since October 1, 2025. Federally regulated financial institutions also report monthly to OSFI on persons listed under the Magnitsky Law and the Criminal Code. Suspected sanctions evasion goes in a Suspicious Transaction Report.
Yes. Since 2023, SEMA and the Magnitsky Law deem a listed person to own the property of any entity they control. Control means holding 50% or more of the shares, ownership interests or voting rights, being able to change the board's composition or powers, or it being reasonable to conclude they can direct the entity's activities. An unlisted subsidiary won't match on its own, so screen beneficial owners (UBOs) too.
Many Canadian-listed names are transliterated from Russian, Belarusian, Persian, Chinese and other scripts and are spelled several ways. The API matches against the primary name and every alias in the Canadian list, and each match comes with a score and the reasons behind it. Add date of birth to separate true matches from false positives, since it's the main identifier the Canadian list provides.
Screen them as vessels, not companies. Canada lists ships with their IMO number, many of them tankers in Russia's shadow fleet. 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.
We use the names and details you submit only to run the check and never store them, in line with PIPEDA's principles of limiting collection and retention. We log only request metadata, such as when a check ran and how long it took. Each response returns your own subject_ref, so you can link results to your records without sending more than the check needs.
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 list update. One screening is one subject, new accounts get 100 free screenings, and paid plans start at $149 a month.
SanctionsLookup
