On 21 January 2019, the Wolfsberg Group published new guidance on how financial institutions (FIs) should carry out sanctions screening. The fundamentals of the guidance are derived from legal/regulatory requirements, as well as expectations and global industry best practice. It is not intended to suggest that all FIs should apply all elements in the guidance to the same level; rather, it attempts to demonstrate where sanctions screening can be an effective part of a wider sanctions compliance programme, where it has limitations as a control and where a risk based approach is appropriate. The guidance includes sections on the definition of sanctions screening, the fundamental elements of a sanctions screening programme, consideration of a risk based approach, technology, alert generation and handling, reference data, transaction screening, list management and lookbacks.