CGSS study guide
CGSS · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS) is a professional credential for people whose work touches economic and trade sanctions: compliance officers at banks and fintechs, screening and investigations analysts, trade finance staff, lawyers, and consultants advising on cross-border exposure. It signals that the holder can read a sanctions programme, apply it to a transaction or a customer relationship, and defend the decision. The CGSS study guide has 5 sections and about 2,182 words.
01Sanctions Fundamentals and Legal Framework
Sanctions are coercive measures - asset freezes, transaction bans, sectoral restrictions, arms embargoes - imposed by states or the UN Security Council to change behaviour or constrain capability. Learn to separate four axes: comprehensive vs.
393 words, about 2 min02Sanctions Programs and Regulatory Regimes
Programs are either country/regional (Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Russia and Belarus, Venezuela, Myanmar, and others) or thematic (counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, WMD proliferation, human rights under Global Magnitsky, corruption, hostage-taking). Each program has its own prohibitions and general licences; a name tells you which program, not which rule applies.
369 words, about 2 min03Sanctions Compliance Program Design and Governance
OFAC's compliance framework identifies five essential elements: management commitment , a risk assessment , internal controls , testing and auditing , and training . Examiners test whether each exists, is documented, and is tailored - not whether a policy binder exists.
365 words, about 2 min04Sanctions Screening, Monitoring and Investigation
Screening compares parties, beneficial owners, directors, addresses, vessels and payment fields against sanctions lists. Design decisions that examiners probe: which lists, which fields, what fuzzy-matching logic and thresholds, how transliteration and name-order variation are handled, and whether screening runs at onboarding, on a periodic cycle, and on every list update.
351 words, about 2 min05Sanctions Evasion, Enforcement and Emerging Issues
Evasion is conduct designed to make a prohibited transaction look permissible. Common typologies: third-country intermediaries and transshipment; front and shell companies with nominee directors; free trade zones used to re-invoice and re-document goods; trade-based techniques such as over- and under-invoicing, HS code misclassification, phantom shipments and mismatched descriptions; diversion of dual-use goods; alternative payment routes including cash, hawala, barter, gold, prepaid value and virtual currency with mixers; shipping deception - AIS gaps, ship-to-ship transfers, flag hopping, opaque ownership; and routing through a non-designated subsidiary of a designated group.
704 words, about 4 min