SanctionsLookupSwitzerland Sanctions List Download (XML)
Download the official SECO sanctions list from Switzerland as XML. It covers all 7,100 individuals, organisations and vessels subject to Swiss sanctions.
Last list change 2 days agofile served by the official sesam.search.admin.ch
XML
Full list, for automated imports
What the Swiss sanctions list download contains
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) publishes Switzerland's overall sanctions list through SESAM. Sanctions are imposed by Federal Council ordinances under the Embargo Act. For a listed party, funds and economic resources are frozen, and nobody may make funds or economic resources available to them.
The official search page explains the database. The download is the XML of the whole list. It covers individuals, companies, organisations and vessels named in the ordinance annexes: Russia and Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, Syria, North Korea, the Taliban, ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida, and the other programmes SECO maintains.
UN Security Council sanctions are implemented as a matter of course. EU sanctions are adopted by Federal Council decision, wholly or in part, on Switzerland's own timeline. The file therefore overlaps the EU list without being a copy of it.
Download format: XML
SECO publishes one file for the overall list: an XML document whose root is swiss-sanctions-list and whose list-type is whole-list. That is the file to parse. An XSD describes the structure. It is not a second copy of the names.
Each listed party is a target with an SSID. Names and aliases sit on that target. A sanctions programme is separate: one target can belong to more than one programme, and the programme points at the ordinance that imposes the measure. The file does not spell out who owns or controls a company. SECO says the search tool is only a support and shows no ownership or control links.
There is no standing Excel or PDF of this full list. In SESAM you can leave the search fields empty and click Excel download to generate a spreadsheet of the current database. That export is produced by the search. Automate against the XML address, not against a one-off spreadsheet.
How often the official download file is updated
There is no fixed schedule. SECO replaces the list when an ordinance annex changes. Some UN listings apply in Switzerland as soon as the UN committee makes them, and SECO then updates SESAM. The XML root carries a date attribute for that file. It is not a publication id you can subscribe to.
How to automate the Swiss sanctions list download
To screen against the list yourself, download the XML, detect when the file date or the bytes change, parse every target and alias, and re-screen after each ordinance amendment. The download address is a page that returns the file. Keep that address. Do not cache a redirected copy.
Our Swiss sanctions screening API keeps this XML in sync and returns a match score with the list version and file hash used for that check. The same request can include OFAC, UN, EU, UK, Canada, Australia and the other lists we cover.
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FAQ
Is the Swiss sanctions list free to download?
Yes. The XML file is free and needs no registration.
Is there an Excel or PDF file of the full list?
SECO does not publish a standing Excel or PDF of the overall list. Inside the SESAM search tool you can export Excel by leaving the search fields empty and clicking Excel download. That export is generated for the search. The file to automate against is the XML.
Does the SECO list include UN and EU sanctions?
It includes the sanctions Switzerland has put into its own ordinances. UN Security Council sanctions are implemented as a matter of course. EU sanctions are adopted by the Federal Council, wholly or in part, on Switzerland's own timeline. The lists overlap. They are not the same file.
What is an SSID?
Each listed party in the XML has an SSID, SECO's identifier for that target. One target can sit in more than one sanctions programme. The programme is a separate sanctions-set, tied to the ordinance that imposes the measure.
Does the file show who owns or controls a company?
No. SECO says the SESAM search is a support tool and does not show ownership or control. The freeze still reaches funds and economic resources that a listed person owns or controls. An unlisted subsidiary will not appear on its own, so screen the owners as well.
How do I screen names against the Swiss sanctions list?
Downloading the XML is only the first step. Screening means matching names and aliases against every target and keeping up with each ordinance change. Simple exact-match lookups miss spelling variations and produce false positives. Swiss sanctions screening API