An AI sanctions screening agent prepares the names to screen: the supplier's legal and trading names, directors and beneficial owners, with alternative spellings and transliterations.
Agent collects entity and owner names.
Agent compares names with sanctions lists.
Agent ranks possible matches by closeness.
Compliance analyst decides true or false match.
Reasoning and list versions are stored.
Agent repeats screening when lists change.
It compares them with the lists your compliance team has chosen, scores how closely each potential match fits using other details such as country and date of birth, and sorts hits by likelihood.
It records the screening date and result against the supplier and sets the next rescreen date, sending any potential match to a named compliance reviewer.
Name matching produces many false hits, so reviewers either drown in alerts or start to wave them through.
Common names generate hits that are not the supplier.
Transliteration and abbreviation mean a true match may not look identical.
Only the company name is screened, not its owners and directors.
Lists change, and a supplier clear at onboarding may be listed later.
Reviewers clear alerts with no record of why.
Legal name, trading names, owners and directors are listed with variants.
Each name is compared with the lists your compliance team selected.
Hits are ranked using supporting details, and obvious non-matches are explained rather than discarded.
The date, lists used, hits and reasoning are recorded on the supplier.
Potential matches go to a reviewer, and a rescreen date is set according to policy.
Bring a small sample and watch Flo work through it.
| Aspect | By hand | With the agent |
|---|---|---|
| Name list | Only the supplier name is screened. | Agent also screens listed owners and directors shown on file. |
| Match noise | Analysts clear many false matches from scratch. | Agent ranks matches and shows the identifying data side by side. |
| Documentation | Reasons for clearing are brief or missing. | Each decision stores the reason and the list version. |
| Ongoing | Screening happens once at onboarding. | Agent can repeat screening when lists update, for review. |
| Speed | Screening waits behind other work. | Hits are queued with context so analysts start on the hard ones. |
| If | Then | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| a possible match is found | queue it with matching and non-matching details | Compliance analyst |
| the match is on an owner rather than the supplier | show the ownership link | Compliance analyst |
| a list is out of date | mark the screen as stale | Compliance lead |
| country details raise a restricted jurisdiction | flag for review | Compliance lead |
| names are very common | mark the match as weak and show the extra identifiers | Compliance analyst |
| no hits are found | record a clear result | Compliance analyst |
Variant spellings are tried and shown so the analyst sees why a hit appeared. The analyst decides on the match.
The agent stops all onboarding activity on the record and informs compliance. Only compliance decides on next steps and any reporting.
Where dates of birth or addresses are missing, the agent notes the lack. The analyst decides whether to ask the supplier.
The agent records the screen as incomplete and retries later. No clear result is stored until it runs.
Talk it through with the team. We will map it to your steps and show where a person stays in control.
Choose the lists you screen against.
Compare the agent's ranking with analyst decisions.
Screen owners as well.
Repeat screens when lists change.
Review time (days) = date potential match resolved − date match raised, averaged across hitsIt shows how long suppliers wait while a hit is reviewed. Long times can hold up onboarding and payments.
Quick answers to what people ask most about sanctions screening.
Book a demoIt is checking a supplier and its owners against government sanctions lists before doing business. An AI agent can run the comparison and sort likely matches from false ones for compliance to review.
No. It flags potential matches and records its reasoning. Compliance decides whether to clear, block or escalate.
Because sanctions often apply to individuals who control a company, so screening only the company name can miss a connection.
That is a compliance policy decision. The agent applies the schedule your team sets and flags suppliers that are due.
KYB, or know your business, verification is the step of confirming that a supplier is a real, legally registered company and identifying who owns or controls it.
→Adverse media screening is the step of searching news and public sources for negative stories about a supplier or its principals, such as fraud, bribery, litigation or safety failures.
→Supplier due diligence is the overall review of a prospective supplier's identity, ownership, finances, compliance and risk before a relationship begins.
→A supplier financial health check is the step of judging whether a supplier is stable enough to deliver and to keep trading over the life of the contract.
→Bring a small sample of real items. We will show what Flo handles on its own and where it hands over to your team.
