References API

To facilitate targetted data retrieval for the References APIs, World-Check On Demand offers multiple parameters.

To quickly explore these filters and parameters, please refer to the Quick Start.

URL Parameters

Limit

Parameter: limit

Default: 1000

Allows the calling application to set the maximum number of World-Check reference records within an API response page. The allowable range is between 20-1000, with a default of 1000 records. Higher values provide better overall data retrieval throughput at the expense of a little response time. Lower values are useful when calling the API to display the returned information directly on a graphical user interface.

URL with a limit query parameter.
https://api.risk.lseg.com/data/world-check/v1/schemes/wcCityList/concepts?limit=200

Cursor

Parameter: cursor

Default: None

When the number of total records in the API response is more than the page limit, the resulting records are provided in multiple API pages. To retrieve these additional pages, a cursor value is provided in the first response page which must be provided in the subsequent API request. The cursors are provided in both the meta.cursors object in the response payload and in the response headers, providing you flexibility with your integration.

Cursor Type	Response Payload	Response Header
Next Page	`meta.cursors.next`	`Wcod-Cursor-Next`
Previous Page	`meta.cursors.previous`	`Wcod-Cursor-Previous`

A sample curl request with a limit and cursor.
curl --location 'https://api.risk.lseg.com/data/world-check/v1/schemes/wcSourceKwd/concepts?limit=200&cursor=gABCDEFBor7kPknQ4S5X50nf3x0x5dUEe5poeag8WIGOqA3EwUoyYwZd3yA5YRrW6_j6EICiAy4NkfHlABbg4yQ6hFSHdFXfoTq8smz313QFOi_lurNM_FrgaTgVb-AY8T639YJvVE3kF6gR2enLpGMsiYVJ1VnwOmQ%3D%3D' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'queryHash: 850c91fbb6da9f0437a9f101d258c60d1221832f7083cf1e1ebac62e25f71674' \
--header 'Authorization: ••••••'

When sending an API request with a cursor, the queryHash header parameter is required (see below).

New Since

Parameter: newSince

Default: None

This parameter requires a ISO-8601 datetime value and serves as the starting point for retrieving references that had been published for the first time in World-Check On Demand. This is normally used for delta retrieval of new schemes or concepts.

Attribute	Value
Allowed values in `newSince`	full ISO-8601 datetime with this pattern: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sssZ

A sample curl command requesting for the list of newly published concepts since the provided newSince value.
curl --location 'https://api.risk.lseg.com/data/world-check/v1/concepts?limit=200&newSince=2025-08-27T02%3A41%3A13.004Z' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: ••••••'

TIP

This parameter can also be used to retrieve all concepts by using a value such as 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z since all entries are newer than this timestamp. There are more than 400000 concepts so pagination using cursors is a must. However, this approach is more efficient than retrieving the concepts one scheme at a time.

Changed Since

Parameter: changedSince

Default: None

This parameter requires a ISO-8601 datetime value and serves as the starting point for retrieving references that had been updated. This is normally used for delta retrieval of updated schemes or concepts.

Attribute	Value
Allowed values in `changedSince`	full ISO-8601 datetime with this pattern: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sssZ

A sample curl command requesting for the list of updated schemes since the provided changedSince value.
curl --location 'https://api.risk.lseg.com/data/world-check/v1/schemes?limit=200&changedSince=2025-08-27T02%3A57%3A25.885Z' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: ••••••'

Header Parameters

Query Hash

Parameter: queryHash

Default: None

Lifetime: 48 hours

World-Check On Demand API queries are deterministic across multiple pages. This means that results of queries that span multiple pages remain are not affected by continuous background updates to these reference records. The records on the subsequent pages will remain as they are at the time of the initial query (i.e., query that generated page #1). To facilitate this deterministic behavior, a queryHash value is provided on the first response page, within the meta object. This value is also provided in the first response header.

This parameter ensures that the original request conditions has not changed on each paging request, allowing the API to correctly respond with the right state of the records.

Data	Response Payload	Response Header
Query Hash	`meta.queryHash`	`Wcod-Query-Hash`

This query hash value must be sent in the queryHash request header key when requesting any page with a cursor URL parameter. The initial query and path parameters should also remain the same.

Sample curl request for a subsequent page showing the cursor as query parameter and the queryHash in the request header.
curl --location 'https://api.risk.lseg.com/data/world-check/v1/schemes/wcSourceKwd/concepts?limit=200&cursor=gABCDEFBor7kPknQ4S5X50nf3x0x5dUEe5poeag8WIGOqA3EwUoyYwZd3yA5YRrW6_j6EICiAy4NkfHlABbg4yQ6hFSHdFXfoTq8smz313QFOi_lurNM_FrgaTgVb-AY8T639YJvVE3kF6gR2enLpGMsiYVJ1VnwOmQ%3D%3D' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'queryHash: 850c91fbb6da9f0437a9f101d258c60d1221832f7083cf1e1ebac62e25f71674' \
--header 'Authorization: ••••••'

Query hash values are only valid for 48 hours.

Path Parameters

Scheme ID

Parameter: {scheme-id}

Default: None

When requesting for the list of concepts within a scheme, the scheme-id must be provided as a path parameter to the URL. These scheme identifiers is the concept within each scheme.id value of a reference scheme entry. This is the same as the concept.alias value.

The references record for the wcCountry scheme showing the id and alias values.
"scheme": 
    {
        "created": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z",
        "modified": "2025-05-02T07:43:09.886Z",
        "effectiveFrom": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z",
        "id": "scheme:wcCountry",
        "alias": "wcCountry",
        "entityTypes": [
            {
                "value": "wcCountry",
                "created": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z",
                "effectiveFrom": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z"
            }
        ],
        "names": [
            {
                "role": "wcMdNameRole:MAIN_NAME",
                "language": "en-GB",
                "value": "WC Country List",
                "created": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z",
                "effectiveFrom": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z"
            }
        ],
        "definitions": [
            {
                "role": "wcMdDefRole:main",
                "language": "en-GB",
                "value": "A List of countries used in World-Check",
                "created": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z",
                "effectiveFrom": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z"
            }
        ]
    },
    "schemeMeta": {
        "lastPublishedDate": "2025-08-06T08:28:40.588Z",
        "initialPublishedDate": "2025-08-06T08:28:40.588Z"
   }

The concept component of the id or the value of the alias key becomes the scheme-id required for retrieving the concepts for each scheme, like in the example below.

Requesting concepts within a scheme requires the scheme ID in the path.
https://api.risk.lseg.com/data/world-check/v1/schemes/{scheme-id}/concepts

URL Parameters​

Limit​

Cursor​

New Since​

Changed Since​

Header Parameters​

Query Hash​

Path Parameters​

Scheme ID​

URL Parameters

Limit

Cursor

New Since

Changed Since

Header Parameters

Query Hash

Path Parameters

Scheme ID