SANCTIONS LISTS AND WATCHLISTS EXPLAINED · GUIDEUPDATED 2026-09-04
Sanctions Lists and Watchlists Explained
South Africa's TFS list is the UN list, republished within 24 hours
The FIC targeted financial sanctions portal: 1,002 UN-derived listings, the freeze-without-delay duty, and reporting through goAML.
South Africa's targeted financial sanctions list is a mirror, and knowing that changes how you use it. The Financial Intelligence Centre publishes it under sections 26A to 26C of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, and every entry on it originates with a United Nations Security Council committee. We checked: all 1,002 listings in the XML export on 4 September 2026 carried a UN reference number — 730 individuals with codes such as QDi, TAi, KPi and IQi, and 272 entities with the matching QDe, IRe and KPe series. There is no domestic designation on the file. What South Africa adds is not names but obligation and speed. The FIC republishes within 24 hours of a UNSC change, and accountable institutions must freeze property without delay on a match, cease the business relationship, and report — a terrorist property report under section 28A or a suspicious transaction report under section 29, both filed through goAML. Transacting with a listed party is prohibited unless the Minister of Finance grants an exemption. The portal at tfs.fic.gov.za offers Excel, PDF and XML downloads and an email subscription for notices.
What this workflow covers
SCOPE- 1,002 listings in the XML export on 4 September 2026: 730 individuals and 272 entities, every one carrying a UN Security Council committee reference.
- The largest committee populations among individuals are QDi (ISIL and Al-Qaida) with 248, TAi (Taliban) with 135, KPi (DPRK) with 80 and IQi (Iraq) with 65; among entities, QDe with 87, IRe with 78 and KPe with 75.
- Individual records carry FullName, ListedOn, Comments, Designation, Nationality (627), Alias (564), Date of Birth (406), Address (355), Document (297), Place of Birth (242) and Title (160). Entity records are thinner: name, reference, listing date, comments, address and alias.
- Listing dates on individuals run from 12 April 2000 to 28 April 2026, so the file carries a quarter-century of UN designations rather than a recent window.
- Formats: Excel, PDF and XML from the download page at tfs.fic.gov.za, plus a name search and a subscription that emails TFS notices as they publish.
- Cadence is defined by the source: the FIC states it updates within 24 hours of a change made by the UNSC. There is no separate delta file, but the published notices record each change.
- Nothing on the file originates outside the UN system — no South African domestic designation, no EU, UK or US listing, no ownership rule. A firm relying on this file alone is screening the UN population and nothing else.
- The bad matches are inherited from the UN list itself: Arabic and Somali names with many valid Latin renderings, 324 of the 730 listed individuals carrying no date of birth, and entity names that are ordinary Arabic phrases.
- A match is a freeze-without-delay obligation, not a review queue. Immobilise the property, stop the relationship, then file the section 28A or section 29 report through goAML and keep the evidence of what you matched and when. South Africa is one of the main jurisdictions on our coverage register, which lists the SAPS wanted-persons feed separately as a criminal watchlist rather than folding it into sanctions.
Key statistics
DATA- Listings on the FIC TFS list, 4 September 2026
- 1,002 (730 individuals, 272 entities)
- Counted from the FIC TFS XML export
- Listings carrying a UN committee reference
- 1,002 of 1,002
- Counted from the FIC TFS XML export
- Republication window after a UNSC change
- Within 24 hours
- Financial Intelligence Centre, targeted financial sanctions
Compliance glossary
TERMS- Targeted financial sanctions (TFS)
- Measures requiring the immediate freezing of funds and other assets of designated persons and entities, and a prohibition on making assets available to them, applied without prior notice.
- Accountable institution
- A business listed in Schedule 1 to South Africa's FIC Act — banks, attorneys, estate agents, dealers in high-value goods and others — that carries screening, freezing and reporting duties.
- goAML
- The reporting platform through which South African accountable institutions file terrorist property reports and suspicious transaction reports with the Financial Intelligence Centre.
- UN committee reference
- The code a Security Council sanctions committee assigns to a listing, such as QDi.001 or KPe.053. Its presence on every FIC record is what identifies the list as UN-derived.
Authoritative references
SOURCES- 01Targeted financial sanctions
Financial Intelligence Centre, South Africa
- 02TFS list downloads
Financial Intelligence Centre, South Africa
- 03United Nations Security Council Consolidated List
United Nations Security Council
- 04About the FIC and the FIC Act
Financial Intelligence Centre, South Africa
Frequently asked questions
Q&A- Does South Africa have its own sanctions list?
- Not on this portal. Every one of the 1,002 records the FIC published on 4 September 2026 carries a UN Security Council reference, and the FIC describes the list as a replica of the UNSC consolidated list. South Africa's contribution is the domestic legal effect and the reporting obligations, not the designations.
- What does freeze without delay mean in practice?
- It means acting on the match rather than scheduling it. Property must be frozen and business with the listed party must stop at the point you identify the match, without waiting for a supervisory instruction or a court order. The subsequent report to the FIC documents what you froze; it is not a precondition for freezing.
- Which report do I file after a TFS match?
- A terrorist property report under section 28A(1)(c) of the FIC Act where you hold or control property of a listed party, or a suspicious transaction report under section 29(1)(b)(vi) where the concern arises from a transaction. Both go through goAML. Which one applies depends on what you are holding, so read both triggers before filing.
- How do I download the South African TFS list?
- From tfs.fic.gov.za, where the download page offers Excel, PDF and XML. The XML separates individuals and entities into two record types with different field sets, so a parser that assumes one shape will drop the 272 entity records. There is also a subscription that emails notices when the list changes.
- Do I still need to screen the UN list if I screen South Africa's?
- The populations are the same by design, but the timing and the field structure differ, and the UN file carries fuller identifier data than the FIC extract. Firms with a South African obligation screen the FIC list because that is the version their supervisor examines; firms without one usually take the UN list directly.
- Can a South African bank ever deal with a listed person?
- Only under a specific exemption granted by the Minister of Finance, usually for humanitarian purposes or to give effect to a contractual obligation predating the listing. The exemption is narrow, it is granted case by case, and it does not lift the freeze on anything outside its terms.
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