Know-your-business datasets JSON

What is this?

The datasets provide information regarding the control and ownership of companies in various jurisdictions. They are collected from public sources, and are published here in a cleaned and transformed structure, using the FollowTheMoney entity format.

What is it useful for?

Beneficial ownership data is used by businesses that want to understand if they're dealing with risky counterparties, and investigators who want to understand who is behind a particular company.

How can I use the data?

OpenSanctions KYB data is a building block, not an end-user product. Here's some ways you can use it:

• OpenScreening: We've worked with Linkurious and OpenOwnership to publish a demo application where you can interactively browse and analyse the combined OpenSanctions and KYB datasets.
• OpenSanctions KYB API: Use our search and matching API if you want to integrate the datasets into a screening process or other application.
• Bulk data downloads: Fetch the full datasets for download on this page. They can be processed using the FollowTheMoney suite of tools for the command-line, Python and TypeScript.

Contact us about a data license if you plan to rely on the data for commercial use.

How is this different from the default dataset?

Our OpenSanctions default dataset collects entities that are directly or indirectly associated with some risk indication. This doesn't apply to the vast majority of companies.

The KYB datasets represent full company databases, irrespective of risk indications. Some company records from these datasets are routinely added to OpenSanctions core via data enrichment.

Unlike the OpenSanctions core data, the KYB datasets are not de-duplicated. This means that if a source registry publishes multiple records that describe a single person or company, they will be reproduced in this data as-is.

How frequently are datasets updated?

We update most sources once a week. This doesn't apply to data sources which - by their nature - do not change on a regular basis (e.g. the ICIJ OffshoreLeaks database).

Updates also exclude the Russian company database: since the Duma has passed laws which allow sanctioned companies to hide their information in the registry, we're using a static version dated 1. Jan 2022 as the last safe point of reference for Russia.

I want to use this!

Brilliant, come talk to us! The OpenSanctions dataset is free to use for non-commercial purposes, including users from academia, activists and journalists. If you're interested in licensing the data for commercial purposes, please contact us.

Available datasets