Sanctions and watch lists are often conceptually categorized into "blacklists" and "whitelists." A blacklist contains entities (individuals, companies, countries) with whom transactions are prohibited or restricted by law, such as OFAC's SDN List. A whitelist, conversely, contains entities that are explicitly pre-approved or permitted. While screening systems primarily focus on blacklists to block illicit activity, the underlying logic of "prohibit" versus "permit" is fundamental to the screening process.

A. High-risk and low-risk are categories applied to customers or jurisdictions based on a risk assessment, not to the sanctions lists themselves, which are inherently high-risk.

B. "Vulnerable and non-vulnerable" is not standard terminology for categorizing sanctions lists; this language is more common in social or cybersecurity contexts.

D. "Peak and off-peak" is terminology related to demand or usage timing (e.g., for utilities or network traffic) and is irrelevant to sanctions compliance.

1. ACAMS CAMS Risk Management Study Guide (2020), Chapter 3: "Sanctions Screening," discusses the nature of sanctions lists which function as lists of prohibited parties (i.e., blacklists). The concept of whitelisting is also discussed as a method to reduce false positives by pre-approving known, legitimate entities.

2. Zaby, M. (2010). Sanctions Screening: A Basic Introduction. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 13(3), 255-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/13685201011055213. This article discusses the operational mechanics of screening against lists of prohibited entities, conceptually known as blacklists.