Platform · Maritime
Vessel screening: check the ship, the owner and the cargo trail.
Vessel screening checks a ship and the entities behind it against sanctions lists before you charter or trade: the hull by IMO number, the ownership and management chain, and flag history. KYCK screens the vessel and the counterparty in one pass and keeps the evidence trail your auditor asks for.
Most vessel tools sell raw data at tanker-major prices, and none of them does onboarding.
LAST UPDATED AUG 2026
What a vessel check covers
A vessel check in KYCK covers the ship and the chain around it: vessel identity against sanctions lists by IMO number, including OFAC, EU and UK designations, the registered owner, beneficial owner and ISM manager screened as entities, flag and name history, P&I cover as a signal, and the chartering counterparty you actually sign with.
A vessel sanctions check, step by step
A vessel sanctions check runs in five steps: get the IMO number rather than just the name, screen the hull against sanctions lists, screen the chain of owner, manager and operator as entities, read flag and name history for churn, and document every check with a timestamp so the decision can be proven later.
Get the IMO number, not just the name
Names change and repeat; the IMO number does not. An IMO number check is the first gate of every serious workflow, and a counterparty reluctant to provide the number is telling you something.
Screen the hull against the lists
OFAC has designated vessels directly on the SDN list for years, and the EU and UK regimes follow the same pattern. A hit here ends the conversation; a clear is only the beginning.
Screen the chain: owner, manager, operator
Registered owners are often single-ship shell companies. The beneficial owner, the technical and ISM managers and the commercial operator each get screened as entities, with their own people behind them.
Read the history for churn
Recent reflagging, renaming or manager changes are not proof of anything, but they cluster heavily around designation events. Treat churn as a signal to slow down, not a formality to file.
Document everything with a timestamp
Banks and regulators do not ask whether you screened; they ask you to prove when, against what, and who decided. The evidence is the product of the check, not a by-product.
The problem with static sanctioned vessel lists
A static sanctioned vessel list is stale the week you save it: designation waves add dozens of hulls in a single action, and ownership changes pull clean vessels into scope without any list changing. The workable answer is screening against continuously refreshed lists at the fixture, with re-screening when the deal moves, which is how KYCK runs it.
The vessel ownership check: where the real risk hides
The vessel ownership check matters because sanctions exposure usually enters through the people and companies around the vessel: a designated beneficial owner behind a clean registered owner, a manager shared with designated fleet-mates, or an operator whose other ships tell a clearer story. KYCK unwinds that chain the way it unwinds a corporate counterparty.
How it runs in KYCK
Vessel screening in KYCK runs at the fixture: enter the vessel and counterparty, get a decision-ready result with the evidence attached, and re-screen on demand when anything about the deal changes. Every check is timestamped and exportable, so a question from a bank or regulator months later is an export, not an archaeology project.
Built for
KYCK vessel screening is built for charterers screening fixtures under time pressure, commodity desks moving cargo through counterparties they did not choose, and brokers and operators who need defensible checks without a data-desk budget. Each gets the same one-pass result: vessel, ownership chain and counterparty screened together, with the evidence trail attached.
Screening the shadow fleet
The shadow fleet is the population of tankers and bulkers moving sanctioned cargo under obscured ownership: aging hulls, flag hopping, disabled transponders and shell-company owners. Screening it means checking the vessel, its IMO history and every owning entity together, because the ship often looks clean while its owner does not.
Frequently asked questions
What is a vessel sanctions check?
Screening a ship, identified by its IMO number, against sanctions lists such as the OFAC SDN list and the EU and UK regimes, together with the entities that own, manage and insure it. A vessel can be clean while its beneficial owner is designated, so a real check always covers the chain, not just the hull.
What is an IMO number?
A permanent seven-digit identifier assigned to a ship's hull, with a check digit that makes typos detectable. It never changes, even when the vessel is renamed, reflagged or sold, which is exactly why sanctions lists and screening tools key on it. If a counterparty gives you a vessel name but no IMO number, ask for it.
How do I screen a vessel before chartering?
Check the vessel itself against sanctions lists using its IMO number, then check the chain around it: registered owner, beneficial owner, technical and ISM managers, recent flag changes, and the counterparty you are actually contracting with. Keep dated evidence of every check; the fixture email is not an audit trail.
How often do sanctioned vessel lists change?
Constantly. Designation waves can add dozens of vessels in a single action, and ownership or flag changes can pull a clean ship into scope overnight. A one-time check at onboarding ages fast, which is why re-screening at fixture matters.
What is the shadow fleet?
The informal name for tankers moving sanctioned cargoes under obscured ownership: aging hulls, frequent reflagging, opaque managers and unclear insurance. Regulators respond with vessel designation waves, which is why flag history and ownership churn are screening signals, not trivia.
How do you run an IMO number check?
An IMO number check starts from the seven-digit identifier that stays with a hull for life: confirm the number is valid, pull the vessel's registered owner and flag history, then screen the ship and every owning entity against sanctions lists. KYCK runs the chain in one pass and keeps the evidence.
Bring a real fixture to the demo.
Thirty minutes with a specialist: we screen a vessel and its owners live, and you keep the evidence trail it produces.