It is an understatement to say that proactive sanctions monitoring is important for organisations that are at risk of sanctions violations, particularly in the current political climate. An efficient proactive sanctions monitoring tool, approach and process allow organisations to quickly identify potential risks and take necessary actions to prevent violations. It also helps organisations to maintain transparency and accountability, and to build trust with their customers. Overall, proactive sanctions monitoring is an essential part of any organisation’s risk management strategy.  

In light of this, it is surprising to see how few organisations other than the largest global financial institutions actually have such processes, let alone systems in place, even though it has been extensively proven how efficient and accurate the use of certain eDiscovery technology can be in this context. 

The use of electronic discovery (eDiscovery) technology has grown significantly in recent years but predominantly in the context of companies facing (the risk of) regulatory investigations or disputes. The benefits of using this technology in a proactive instead of a reactive scenario are as great if not greater than in a reactive scenario.   

Using eDiscovery technology for sanctions monitoring allows companies to automate the process of screening communications, transactions and entities against sanctions lists, with minimal implementation costs and effort, resulting in an immediate boost of efficiency and accuracy as well as reducing the risk of human error. 

Getting the process started is straightforward; once the relevant sanctions lists have been identified, the relevant pre-trained datasets are integrated into the eDiscovery software, after which the automated sanctions screening begins. As with any implementation of technology, human review for input and quality control will remain an essential part of the process. 

About the author

Mathieu van Ravenstein is partner at FORCYD in the Netherlands.

Mathieu has over 20 years of experience in eDiscovery and legal policy advice. He has worked with global corporations, law firms and international institutions across the globe advising on many high profile and complex investigations and disputes as well as on legislation in areas such as corporate fraud, money laundering, competition law and international trade.