Recent regulatory updates have elevated the importance of diligent denied party screening and ownership transparency.

OFAC’s longstanding 50 Percent Rule and similar EU and U.K. regulations consider entities majority-owned by sanctioned parties to be automatically blocked, even if they are not named on a sanctions list. In addition, recent U.S. regulatory updates related to export controls have elevated the importance of diligent denied party screening and ownership transparency. The 50% ownership rule (the “Affiliates Rule”) newly enacted by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), scheduled to go into effect in November, would consider any entities owned 50% or more by parties on the BIS Entity List or Military End-User (MEU) List, or by certain sanctioned parties, to also be subject to licensing requirements—regardless of whether they appear by name on a restricted list.

This shift will fundamentally reshape how companies approach global transactions, with a focus on ownership as a key component of denied party screening.

What the Sanctions and BIS 50% Rules Mean for Your Screening Strategy

Rather than relying solely on name-based lists, businesses need to consider complex, opaque ownership structures to identify hidden risks.

As a result, businesses need to evolve to incorporate more advanced data into their investigative screening processes, and upgrade existing screening tools to include ownership-based insights.

How Tradeflow Screening+ Kharon’s Sanctions and BIS 50-Plus Datasets Strengthen Your Compliance Program

To offer additional capabilities to our customers, Tradeflow began a partnership with Kharon. Kharon serves the compliance sector by combing cutting-edge technology and data science with industry-leading research, and provides the critical insights required for a comprehensive view of risk and commercial threats.

As a powerful enhancement to Tradeflow’s existing database* of denied parties from over 160 jurisdictions, Kharon’s Sanctions 50-Plus and BIS 50-Plus datasets will empower users to meet the demands of various 50% rules with data built to reveal hidden risks.

*This enhancement will be considered a premium, paid add-on in addition to Tradeflow’s current list of sanctioned parties. Contact Tradeflow for more information.

Uncover Hidden Ownership Structures

Identify entities that are indirectly or majorly-owned or controlled by multiple sanctioned or trade-restricted actors, so you can uncover risks that traditional screening might miss.

Strengthen Supply Chain Due Diligence

Built on validated, open-source documentation, our enhanced dataset helps you:

• Lower your risk of doing business with bad actors

• Increase efficiency of your denied party determination process

• Preserve your reputation and increase compliance confidence

Achieve Comprehensive Compliance Coverage

With Tradeflow, you continue screening against restricted parties from over 160 countries, now enhanced with multilingual investigations and jurisdiction-specific insights.

For more information about Tradeflow’s partnership with Kharon, or details on how to upgrade your existing Tradeflow screening subscription, visit Tradeflow's website or contact a Tradeflow compliance expert on tradeflow.com, or email help@tradeflow.com. To learn more about Kharon, visit kharon.com.