How to conduct sanctions screening of a foreign company, its owners and executives, and reduce the risk of payments and contracts being blocked. The strengthening of international sanctions has made counterparty screening a mandatory part of the work of Ukrainian exporters, importers, banks, logistics companies, and enterprises attracting foreign financing.
Searching for a partner’s name in an open sanctions list is only the initial stage. A company may not be directly subject to restrictions but may be linked to a sanctioned owner, director, parent company, or another legal entity from the same corporate group.
Additional complexity is created by different spellings of company names and surnames, transliteration, trade names, changes in registered addresses, and the use of intermediaries. Because of this, a simple check based on an exact name match may fail to identify a significant risk.
D&B compliance solutions are used to screen legal entities, beneficial owners, and related persons against sanctions lists, lists of politically exposed persons, information on legally significant events, and negative media coverage.
“Sanctions screening should not be reduced to entering a company’s name into a search bar. It is necessary to identify its owners, executives, parent companies, and subsidiaries. Amid tightening international restrictions, an error can lead to a payment being blocked, a contract being terminated, or reputational losses,” said Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B-Interfax-Ukraine business unit, PhD in Economics.
Before concluding a contract, a Ukrainian company should identify the legal entity, verify its registration details, establish its ownership structure, and compare the information obtained against sanctions and other risk lists.
Banks, carriers, insurance companies, and other participants in the future transaction require particular attention. Even when the seller and buyer are not subject to sanctions, a payment or delivery may be stopped due to the involvement of a high-risk intermediary, vessel, financial institution, or related company.
Based on the results of the screening, a business may refuse the transaction, request additional documents, change the payment route, include sanctions clauses in the contract, or provide for the right to terminate cooperation if the partner’s status changes.
Sanctions compliance does not end after a contract is signed. The status of a company or its owner may change while a long-term contract is already being performed. That is why regular monitoring is advisable for key partners.
Dun & Bradstreet has been operating in the field of business information since 1841. The company provides solutions for third-party screening, analysis of corporate relationships, identification of beneficial ownership, sanctions screening, credit risk management, and supply chain monitoring.
In Ukraine, Dun & Bradstreet products and data are represented by the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency. Its specialized division helps Ukrainian companies screen foreign counterparties and work with international business information. Interfax-Ukraine is an independent Ukrainian news agency that has been operating since 1992 and is headquartered in Kyiv.
Questions can be submitted through the specialized D&B resource — dnb.ua, by email at Urakin@interfax.kyiv.ua, or by phone at +38 (044) 270-65-74.
Verification of the beneficial owner helps Ukrainian companies establish who actually controls a foreign partner and reduce sanctions and reputational risks.
Before concluding an international transaction, it is not enough for a Ukrainian business to check only the name, address, and registration number of a foreign counterparty. A company may be part of a large corporate group, controlled through several legal entities, or have its ultimate owner in another jurisdiction.
Identifying the ultimate beneficial owner, or UBO, makes it possible to understand who actually controls the company and receives economic benefits from its activities. This is important for banking compliance, international payments, investment transactions, exports, imports, and cooperation with large corporate customers.
The formal owner indicated in the register is not always the final link in the structure. Between the operating company and an individual, there may be holding companies, foundations, trusts, nominee owners, or enterprises registered in several countries.
Dun & Bradstreet uses corporate relationships and ownership information to build company structures, identify parent companies and subsidiaries, and determine beneficial owners. Corporate ownership information can be used for KYC checks, sanctions screening, and third-party risk assessment.
“A company’s name and country of registration do not always provide a complete picture of who controls the business. Before a significant transaction, it is necessary to see the entire corporate structure — from the local legal entity to the parent company and the ultimate owners,” emphasized Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B-Interfax-Ukraine business unit, PhD in Economics.
According to him, particular attention should be paid to the ownership structure in cases where a counterparty has recently changed shareholders, is registered in a jurisdiction where access to corporate registers is complicated, or belongs to a group with a large number of related legal entities.
Verification of the beneficial owner helps answer several practical questions. A Ukrainian company needs to understand who controls its partner, whether this owner is connected with sanctioned persons, whether the declared structure corresponds to the actual business activities, and whether reputational or legal risks are hidden behind it.
At the same time, the mere fact of a complex corporate structure does not indicate a violation. International groups often have dozens or hundreds of enterprises in different countries. Risk arises when the structure remains opaque, contradicts the documents provided, or does not make it possible to establish actual control.
Ownership should preferably be checked not only before the first transaction. A change of shareholders, parent company, or ultimate beneficial owner may affect sanctions status, creditworthiness, and the ability to continue making payments through international banks.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytical solutions whose history began in 1841. The company provides tools for identifying legal entities, analyzing corporate relationships, identifying beneficial owners, checking counterparties, and conducting compliance procedures.
The official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in Ukraine is the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency. The D&B-Interfax-Ukraine division helps Ukrainian businesses obtain information about foreign companies, their owners, executives, and corporate relationships. Interfax-Ukraine has been operating since 1992 and produces more than 50 information products in Ukrainian, English, German, and Russian.
COMPANY VERIFICATION, COMPLIANCE, D&B, ULTIMATE BENEFICIAL OWNER
Foreign banks, buyers, and investors can check the legal details, owners, financial condition, and international business profile of a Ukrainian company in the international D&B database.
A Ukrainian entrepreneur may consider their company well-known and reliable; however, for a new foreign bank, buyer, investor, or procurement specialist, it remains a legal entity whose information needs to be verified.
The verification often begins even before the first meeting. A potential partner may search for the legal name, address, telephone number, date of establishment, status, type of activity, management, ownership structure, subsidiaries, and other corporate relationships.
Additionally, financial indicators, payment behavior, credit ratings, legally significant events, sanctions risks, and the consistency of information obtained directly from the company with independent sources may be analyzed.
The D-U-N-S Number is one of the keys through which foreign organizations can identify a legal entity and obtain related corporate information. Basic data may include the legal name, company type, address, telephone number, as well as information about branches or subsidiaries.
“Companies are accustomed to checking their partners, but they analyze far less often how they themselves look in the eyes of the international market. Managing one’s own business profile should become just as much a part of corporate hygiene as financial reporting, auditing, or the legal verification of documents,” says Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B-Interfax-Ukraine business unit, PhD in Economics.
The most common problem is not the presence of negative information, but discrepancies between different sources. For example, a contract may contain one English-language company name, an international database may contain another, while the website may show only a trademark without specifying the legal entity.
Such discrepancies do not necessarily indicate a violation, but they may delay the opening of an account, supplier approval, registration on a platform, investment due diligence, or the conclusion of a contract.
A Ukrainian company should regularly check its own international profile and update it after changes to its address, contact details, manager, name, or ownership structure.
It is also important to ensure that the official website, corporate email, banking documents, contracts, and international records contain consistent information.
D&B business credit reports can be used to assess creditworthiness, payment behavior, ownership structure, and legal events. Such data help creditors, suppliers, and other partners make decisions regarding the terms of cooperation.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytics that has been operating since 1841. The company’s data are used in finance, compliance, procurement, sales, marketing, and corporate information management.
The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency became the official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in the Ukrainian market after concluding a licensing agreement. The D&B-Interfax-Ukraine division helps companies obtain a D-U-N-S Number, verify their own data, and work with international business reports. Interfax-Ukraine has been operating since 1992, produces more than 50 information products, and is headquartered in Kyiv.
D&B Hoovers helps Ukrainian exporters find potential buyers, importers and distributors abroad and verify them before negotiations begin.
Ukrainian manufacturers entering the markets of the European Union, the United States, the Middle East and Asia often begin their search for foreign buyers through trade fairs, recommendations, open directories or personal contacts. However, this approach does not always make it possible to assess the actual scale of the market and quickly distinguish promising companies from inactive or unreliable counterparties.
One of the tools for systematically searching for clients abroad is the international business data platform D&B Hoovers. It makes it possible to compile lists of potential buyers, importers, distributors and corporate customers by country, region, industry, company size, sales volume, number of employees and other parameters.
In particular, a Ukrainian furniture manufacturer can find distributors in Germany, Poland or Romania, an agricultural company can find food importers, and an IT business can find corporate customers of a certain size and profile. D&B Hoovers also contains information about executives and individuals who may influence purchasing decisions.
“A Ukrainian exporter often begins searching for partners through trade fairs, personal contacts or open online directories. Business data makes it possible to turn this into a systematic process: first compile a list of potential buyers, then verify each of them and only after that spend resources on negotiations,” said Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B–Interfax-Ukraine business unit and Candidate of Economic Sciences.
According to him, the search for buyers abroad should consist of at least two stages. At the first stage, the company identifies its target market and compiles a list of potential clients. At the second stage, it verifies the legal status, scale of operations, corporate links, financial stability and business activity of each candidate.
For an effective search, a Ukrainian exporter must define the profile of the desired client in advance. Important criteria may include the country, type of activity, annual turnover, number of employees, presence of its own retail network, import experience and affiliation with an international corporate group.
This approach helps avoid the mass distribution of identical commercial proposals and allows efforts to be focused on companies that may genuinely be interested in Ukrainian products. Additional reasons for making contact may include the expansion of a potential buyer’s business, a change in management, the launch of a new business area or the conclusion of major deals.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international business data and analytics company founded in 1841. Its solutions are used for finding clients, identifying businesses, verifying counterparties, assessing credit and commercial risks, compliance and supply chain management. D&B Hoovers is the company’s solution for prospecting potential clients and sales intelligence.
The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency is the official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in the Ukrainian market. The specialized D&B–Interfax-Ukraine unit provides Ukrainian companies with access to international business data, helps them find and verify foreign partners, obtain a D-U-N-S Number and assess commercial risks. The agency has operated in the Ukrainian political and economic information market since 1992.
Inquiries can be submitted through the specialized D&B resource, dnb.ua, or by telephone at +38 (044) 270-65-74.
Ukrainian companies increasingly need to move from one-time checks of counterparties to regular monitoring of their condition. In a period of high economic, military and logistical risks, a partner’s financial position can change rapidly, and a delay in updating information may lead to losses.
Dun & Bradstreet tools can be used not only for the initial assessment of a counterparty, but also for the subsequent tracking of changes in its business profile, payment discipline, corporate connections, risks and reputational factors. Such an approach is especially important for companies that work with deferred payments, large batches of goods or long-term contracts.
For Ukrainian businesses, regular monitoring can become part of an internal risk management system. It helps companies respond more quickly to a partner’s problems, revise contract terms, limit credit lines or require additional guarantees.
“In a crisis environment, a counterparty that was reliable yesterday does not necessarily remain so tomorrow. That is why business verification, primarily the verification of foreign businesses, should not be a one-time action, but a continuous process,” said Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B-Interfax-Ukraine Business Unit, and PhD in Economics.
He added that the culture of counterparty monitoring should become as routine for Ukrainian companies as accounting or the legal review of a contract.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international company in the field of business data and analytics, founded in 1841. The company provides tools for business identification, counterparty verification, credit and commercial risk assessment, compliance and supply chain analysis. One of D&B’s key tools is the D-U-N-S Number, a unique nine-digit company identifier used in international business practice. In Ukraine, D&B is represented by the Interfax-Ukraine agency. The partnership is aimed at expanding Ukrainian companies’ access to international business data, supporting exports, attracting financing and integrating into global supply chains. Interfax-Ukraine is an independent Ukrainian news agency that has been operating since 1992.
Ukrainian companies that plan to attract financing, work with deferred payment, or expand international sales need to pay greater attention to the assessment of credit and commercial risks. For foreign banks, insurance companies, suppliers, and buyers, the quality of data about a counterparty is becoming a key factor in decision-making.
Dun & Bradstreet solutions make it possible to assess companies’ financial stability, their payment discipline, the risks of non-fulfilment of obligations, and their commercial history. Such data can be used both by Ukrainian companies themselves and by their potential partners. For businesses, this means that transparency is becoming a competitive advantage. A company that is easy to verify and understand has a better chance of obtaining better contract terms, financing, insurance, or trade credit. “In a world where capital has become more cautious, businesses must prove their reliability with data.
For Ukraine, this is especially important: the country has a high macro risk due to the war, so each individual company must reduce the information uncertainty surrounding it as much as possible,” Maksym Urakin noted. He stressed that systematic work with business data helps companies better manage their own risks and at the same time increases trust in them on the part of external partners. Dun & Bradstreet is an international company in the field of business data and analytics, founded in 1841. The company provides tools for business identification, counterparty verification, assessment of credit and commercial risks, compliance, and supply chain analysis.
One of D&B’s key tools is the D-U-N-S Number — a unique nine-digit company identifier used in international business practice. In Ukraine, D&B’s interests are represented by the Interfax-Ukraine agency. The partnership is aimed at expanding Ukrainian companies’ access to international business data, supporting exports, attracting financing, and integrating into global supply chains. Interfax-Ukraine is an independent Ukrainian news agency that has been operating since 1992.
