Entity Registry
One card per sanctioned actor, built across every source.
Sanctions lists are subject to change by their issuing authorities.
The Problem With List-Per-List Screening
Ten lists, ten independent files, ten inconsistent records for the same person.
Ten official sources, ten independent files. The same sanctioned person appears under different transliterations on each — with different aliases, different biographical data, sometimes different entity types.
A system that screens each list independently returns a different result for the same query depending on which source it checks first. That is coincidence, not compliance.
Three-Tier Data Model
Entity, Listing, Version — three layers that separate identity from designation from history.
The registry has three tiers, each answering a different question: who is this person, how are they designated, and what changed?
The Three Tiers Explained
- Entity: One record per real-world actor. Canonical name, entity type, name variants, known aliases, lifecycle status. The identity card — source-neutral, deduplicated across every list.
- Listing: One record per source designation. Programme code, legal basis, source identifier, source-specific properties. Multiple listings per entity. The EU, OFAC, and UN designations of the same person are three separate listings linked to one entity card.
- Version: One record per content change. Properties snapshot, content hash, field-level diff, effective date. Nothing overwritten, nothing lost. When OFAC adds an alias, a new version is written — the previous one stays intact and queryable.
How Names Enter the Registry
Deterministic, multi-step import per source, per night.
Every nightly import runs the same multi-step sequence. Each step is atomic. A failure at any step is logged with full context — no silent data loss.
The Multi-Step Import Pipeline
- 1. Download & Integrity Check: SHA-256 hash compared against previous import. Unchanged: skip. This prevents unnecessary processing and preserves the version chain integrity.
- 2. Parsing: Names classified as primary, spelling variant, or alias. Entity types mapped to shared taxonomy covering persons, organisations, vessels, aircraft, and more.
- 3. Intra-Source Lookup: Source-unique identifier checked first. If the listing exists, it resolves instantly without name matching — the fast path used for most entries on every update.
- 4. Cross-Source Resolution: New entries matched against all other sources using the scoring pipeline. See Entity Resolution for the guard logic that prevents false merges.
- 5. Version Management: Content hash determines whether entry changed. Only real changes create new versions — metadata updates do not trigger version inflation.
- 6. Name Enrichment: Aliases from incoming source merged into entity card, subject to contamination guard. A name that identifies a different entity on a different source is rejected.
Version Chain
Every field change preserved. History is queryable at any past date.
Field categories span the full sanctions record: identity (names, aliases), biographical (DOB, POB, nationality), documentary (passport, LEI, IMO), geographic (addresses), legal (programme, regulation), financial (listing reason), vessel (IMO, tonnage, build date).
The version chain feeds the entity timeline, alias propagation, and the connections engine.
What the Version Chain Enables
- Point-in-Time Queries: Reconstruct the exact state of any entity on any date. Audit a screening decision made six months ago against the list data that existed at the time.
- Field-Level Diff: The delta between two consecutive versions is stored as a structured diff — added aliases, removed addresses, changed DOB, all visible at a glance.
- Delisting Detection: When an entry disappears from a source file, the listing is marked delisted with an effective date — not deleted. The designation history stays intact.
- Alias Propagation: Aliases added by one source become searchable via entity cards originally created from other sources.
Sanctions Screening Built to Be Audited.
Free to use: full screening across every official source, the complete review workflow, and audit-ready exports.
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