Sanctions list
The Swiss SECO sanctions list: Switzerland's consolidated sanctions designations
The SECO sanctions list is the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs' consolidated register of every individual, entity and vessel designated under Switzerland's sanctions ordinances — most of them Swiss adoptions of UN Security Council and EU designations. CompliAPI ingests SECO's XML publication daily and screens the identifiers in each entry.
- Publisher
- State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland
- List type
- Sanctions
- Refresh
- Ingested daily
- API list slug
ch_seco- Official source
- SECO sanctions search (SESAM)
- Download
- Full list as CSVJSONOfficial fileNo API key required.
- Search it live
- Search the Swiss sanctions list free
About this list
Switzerland's sanctions are enacted by the Federal Council as one ordinance per sanctions programme under the Federal Act of 22 March 2002 on the Implementation of International Sanctions (the Embargo Act, SR 946.231), and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) administers them. SECO publishes every designation through its SESAM search service: an online search over directly sanctioned individuals, companies and organisations, an Excel export of the whole database, and a consolidated XML of the whole list with a published XSD schema. The XML carries its own publication date (26 October 2026 when this page was written).
What the SECO sanctions list covers, and what it leaves out: it records every individual, entity and vessel listed in the annexes of Switzerland's sanctions ordinances, programme by programme — Belarus, Ukraine-related measures, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya and the rest — and each programme states whether it originates from the UN, the EU or both. Switzerland largely adopts UN Security Council and EU designations rather than making its own, so a SECO entry usually has an EU or UN counterpart; the Swiss list is the authoritative statement of what applies in Switzerland. It is not a list of sanctioned countries, not a politically-exposed-persons register, and the SESAM search shows only directly sanctioned parties, not ownership or control relationships. A CompliAPI match on ch_seco means an identifier in a current Swiss designation, with the programme and its UN/EU origin carried in the match's metadata.
The XML keeps de-listed parties in the file with a dated de-listing record, alongside the full history of each entry's amendments. CompliAPI decides listing status from those records by date and extracts identifiers only from parties that are currently listed, so a party Switzerland removed years ago cannot produce a sanctions hit. Names are published as structured parts with Cyrillic and Latin spelling variants; identity documents have typed fields (passport, identity card, diplomatic passport, residence permit, travel document); emails and websites appear in free-text 'other information' notes, which CompliAPI also scans for crypto wallet addresses in case a future designation includes one.
What CompliAPI extracts
- Email addresses
- Websites and domains
- Government-issued IDs — passports, identity cards and other identity documents
- Crypto wallet addresses (scanned from free-text fields; none listed as of October 2026)
How CompliAPI handles it
Official XML, daily
CompliAPI downloads SECO's consolidated XML daily. Each target is parsed once, with its programme and UN/EU origin attached, and a download the server cuts short is rejected rather than reconciled as a shorter list.
Listing status by date, not file order
De-listed parties stay in SECO's file with a de-listing record, and each record also embeds a copy of the historical entry. CompliAPI reads only the current entry of each target, decides whether it is listed from the dated modification records, and skips de-listed parties entirely.
Reconciled with delistings tracked
Each run is reconciled source-by-source: identifiers that leave the Swiss list stop matching and are recorded as delistings on the delisted entities page, without touching any other list's data.
Screen against this list
Every /screen endpoint checks all enabled lists by default and names the list behind each match. Add the ?lists= filter to restrict a request to this source.
GET /api/v1/screen/email/{email}?lists=ch_seco
Response
{
"value": "ops@example-trading.ch",
"flagged": false,
"sanctioned": false,
"lists_checked": ["ch_seco"],
"matches": []
}Frequently asked questions
What is the SECO sanctions list?
Switzerland's consolidated register of sanctions designations, published by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). It lists every individual, entity and vessel named in the annexes of the Federal Council's sanctions ordinances, which are made under the Embargo Act of 22 March 2002, grouped by programme. SECO publishes it through the SESAM search service as an online search, an Excel export and a consolidated XML file.
Does Switzerland have its own sanctions list, or does it copy the EU's?
Both, in a sense. The Embargo Act lets Switzerland implement sanctions adopted by the United Nations, the OSCE or its most significant trading partners — in practice the EU — rather than invent its own, so most SECO entries mirror UN Security Council or EU designations and each programme in the XML states its origin as UN, EU or both. But the Swiss list is a separate legal instrument: a designation takes effect in Switzerland when the Federal Council amends the relevant ordinance, so timing and scope can differ from the EU list. CompliAPI screens both and names the list on every match.
How do I search the SECO sanctions list?
The official route is SECO's SESAM search (sesam.search.admin.ch), which searches directly sanctioned individuals, companies and organisations and can export the whole database to Excel. For a quick name or identifier lookup across lists, the free browser search at /tools/sdn-search covers the Swiss list alongside the others CompliAPI ingests and names ch_seco on every Swiss match. For software, use the screening API. A name match is a candidate for review, not a verdict.
Why are de-listed parties still in SECO's XML file?
SECO's XML is a full history: every target carries its listing, amendment and de-listing records with their dates, so a party Switzerland removed stays in the file marked as de-listed. CompliAPI decides listing status from those dated records — the most recent modification wins, and a later re-listing restores a party — and only currently listed parties can match. When a party is de-listed, its identifiers appear on the delisted entities page.
Is there a Swiss sanctions list API?
SECO publishes a search service and files — Excel and XML — not an API. CompliAPI serves the list as one: every /api/v1/screen endpoint checks the Swiss list by default, and ?lists=ch_seco restricts a request to it alone; the same lists filter works on the MCP tools. CompliAPI re-ingests SECO's XML daily so integrators never have to handle the file or its de-listing history.
Does a SECO match set sanctioned: true?
Yes. The Swiss SECO list is classified as sanctions data, so any match sets both flagged and sanctioned in the response, with the match naming ch_seco as its list and carrying the Swiss programme and its UN/EU origin.
Related
Sanctions list
The EU sanctions list: the consolidated financial sanctions file (FSF)
The EU sanctions list (the Commission's consolidated financial sanctions file, FSF): what it covers, how to search it free and how to screen against it.
Sanctions list
The UK Sanctions List (FCDO): the UK's single sanctions designation list
The UK Sanctions List is the FCDO's single UK designation list since January 2026: what it covers, how to search it free, how to screen against it by API.
Sanctions screening
Sanctions screening API — every list, one GET request
Screen crypto addresses, emails, websites, IDs and countries against OFAC, EU, UK and more in one GET.
Sanctions screening
OFAC API — screen against the official SDN list
Screen crypto wallets, emails, IDs and countries against the official US Treasury OFAC SDN list, refreshed every 15 minutes.
Screen against Swiss SECO data
Get a free API key and make your first request in minutes — every screen checks all enabled lists in one call.
Free tier: 1,000 requests a month. No credit card required.
CompliAPI provides data and tools that support compliance workflows. It does not provide legal advice, and organizations should determine their obligations with qualified counsel.