SDN & Consolidated screening
Names, aliases, addresses, DOBs, passports, vessels and aircraft screened at onboarding, on list update and per payment.
OFAC sanctions screening · United States
OFAC search and screening that resolves ownership, not just names.
Run every OFAC list lookup once — then keep it running. ComplianceSuite screens customers, beneficial owners, counterparties and payment messages against the OFAC SDN and Consolidated lists, with the 50 Percent Rule applied across ownership layers, sub-second payment screening, and a reproducible record of every hit, decision and list version behind it.
Why OFAC is different
Strict liability, no materiality threshold.
US sanctions apply to all US persons and to non-US persons transacting in US dollars or with US-origin goods, and violations are strict liability — intent is not required, and there is no de minimis amount. A single payment to a blocked party, or to an entity blocked only because a designated person owns 50% of it in the aggregate, can trigger civil penalties.
That is why name matching alone is not enough. ComplianceSuite screens the names you hold and resolves who ultimately owns the entity behind them, so derived-blocked exposure surfaces before the payment leaves.
- SDN, Consolidated, SSI, FSE and PLC lists
- BIS Entity List and Denied Persons List
- 50 Percent Rule aggregation across layers
- Sanctioned-jurisdiction and address detection
- Vessel, aircraft and crypto-address identifiers
- Continuous re-screening on every list update
- Blocked-property and rejected-transaction records
- Reproducible screening audit trail
Capabilities
Screening, adjudication and evidence in one pass.
50 Percent Rule resolution
Ownership chains aggregated across layers to surface derived-blocked entities, with the path evidenced in the case.
Real-time payment screening
Sub-second API screening for ISO 20022, SWIFT MT, ACH and card flows, including free-text and jurisdiction references.
Whitelisting with an audit trail
Adjudicated non-matches carry reviewer, rationale and expiry so the same false positive does not return every day.
Multi-list coverage
OFAC plus BIS, State, UN, EU and UK OFSI lists in one screening pass with per-list attribution on each hit.
Tuning you can prove
Threshold changes back-tested against historical alerts, with projected volume and four-eyes approval before release.
Related: global sanctions screening, UBO verification, PEP screening.
FAQ
OFAC screening, answered.
How do I run an OFAC search?
A manual OFAC search means checking a name against the Treasury's online SDN search tool, one record at a time, with no audit trail. ComplianceSuite automates the same OFAC list lookup across your entire customer base, beneficial owners and payment flows — at onboarding, on every list update and per transaction — and keeps a reproducible record of every search and decision.
What is the OFAC list and how often is it updated?
The OFAC list refers to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list plus the Consolidated Sanctions List (NS-MBS, SSI, FSE, PLC and others) published by the US Treasury. Updates arrive without warning — sometimes several times a week — so firms are expected to rescreen their existing population on every change, not just new customers. ComplianceSuite ingests each update automatically and triggers re-screening within minutes.
What is OFAC screening software?
OFAC screening software checks customers, beneficial owners, counterparties and payment messages against sanctions lists published by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control — primarily the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list and the Consolidated Sanctions List — and against sectoral, sanctioned-jurisdiction and vessel/aircraft identifiers. ComplianceSuite screens at onboarding, on every list update and on each payment, and records the decision behind every hit.
Does it apply the OFAC 50 Percent Rule?
Yes. Entities owned 50% or more, directly or indirectly, in the aggregate by one or more blocked persons are themselves blocked even when not separately listed. ComplianceSuite resolves ownership chains from corporate-registry and UBO data, aggregates the blocked interests, and flags derived-blocked entities with the ownership path shown as evidence.
Is there a free OFAC lookup tool?
OFAC's own Sanctions List Search is free and public, but it is a single-name manual lookup with no fuzzy-matching configuration, no payment screening, no ownership resolution and no audit trail. Regulated firms need automated OFAC lookup across full populations with evidence of every decision — which is what ComplianceSuite provides.
Which lists are covered?
OFAC SDN and Consolidated (NS-MBS, SSI, FSE, PLC), plus BIS Entity and Denied Persons lists, State Department designations, UN, EU, UK OFSI/HMT and local lists where relevant. Updates are ingested automatically and trigger re-screening of the affected population, not just new customers.
How do you keep false positives manageable?
Fuzzy matching with configurable thresholds, transliteration and nickname handling, date-of-birth and nationality corroboration, and a whitelist of adjudicated non-matches that carries the reviewer, rationale and expiry. Tuning changes are back-tested against historical alerts so you can see projected volume before going live.
What about blocked-property reporting?
When property is blocked or a transaction rejected, ComplianceSuite captures the case, generates the supporting record for OFAC's initial report within 10 business days, and tracks the Annual Report of Blocked Property (TD F 90-22.50) cycle with the underlying evidence retained.
Is real-time payment screening supported?
Yes — ISO 20022, SWIFT MT and card/ACH message screening via API with sub-second response, covering originator, beneficiary, intermediaries, free-text fields and sanctioned-jurisdiction references such as address or BIC country.
How is screening evidenced for an examination?
Every screen stores the list version, the search parameters, all candidate hits, the reviewer, timestamp, decision and rationale — reproducible on demand, so you can show exactly what was known at the moment of the decision.
Test us on your hardest false positives.
Send an anonymised sample of your current alerts and we'll show the match logic, the ownership resolution and the volume reduction side by side.