LSEG Risk Intelligence, a provider of risk and compliance intelligence, has launched a new dataset aimed at helping financial institutions better identify securities exposure linked to global sanctions regimes.
The company announced the release of the Sanctioned Securities Data File, developed in partnership with BIGTXN. The new instrument-level dataset is designed to map sanctions designations directly to financial instruments, enabling firms to detect both direct and indirect exposure to sanctioned entities.
Early analysis from the dataset shows that while most sanctions-linked instruments are associated with explicit legal designations, around one-third are linked through ownership and control relationships. In practice, this means securities issued by non-sanctioned companies may still fall within scope if those companies are owned or controlled by sanctioned parents, exposing gaps in traditional list-based screening approaches.
The findings also highlight that sanctions risk remains an active challenge for market participants. Based on current platform coverage, approximately six in ten sanctions-linked instruments remain active, indicating that exposure is not confined to historical or inactive securities but continues to affect trading, investment and post-trade activities.
At the instrument level, sanctions impact is concentrated in rights and entitlements, debt instruments and structured products, which together account for around 80% of sanctions-linked securities.
From a geographic perspective, Russia dominates the global sanctions-linked securities landscape, accounting for roughly 60% of total issuance. Other regimes administered by the European Union, United States, New Zealand and Ukraine are also contributing materially to the volume of affected instruments, underscoring the growing complexity of managing sanctions across multiple jurisdictions.
The Sanctioned Securities Data File integrates into existing compliance, risk and trading workflows through a centralised structured data feed. It links to entities on the LSEG World-Check platform and supports screening across a broad range of asset classes with frequent updates aligned to evolving sanctions designations.
LSEG Risk Intelligence head of strategy Chris Moyser said, “Sanctions regimes today extend far beyond simple lists of designated names. Financial institutions need a systematic way to understand how those designations translate into real exposure across securities, ownership structures and corporate actions. The Sanctioned Securities Data File is designed to bring that clarity – helping firms identify risk that is often difficult to detect using traditional screening approaches.”
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