How to Check the OFAC Sanctions List: A Complete Guide

What Is the OFAC SDN List?

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) maintains the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), one of the most important sanctions lists in the world. Any person or company doing business with the United States, using U.S. dollars, or transacting through U.S. financial institutions must screen against this list.

The SDN List contains over 18,000 entries including individuals, companies, vessels, and aircraft that are subject to U.S. economic sanctions. Their assets within U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.

Why Sanctions Screening Matters

Failing to screen against the OFAC SDN list can result in severe penalties. Civil penalties can reach up to $20 million per violation, and criminal penalties can include up to 30 years in prison. Even unintentional violations can lead to significant fines.

Beyond legal requirements, sanctions screening protects your business reputation and helps prevent your company from inadvertently supporting terrorism, drug trafficking, or weapons proliferation.

How to Screen Names Against OFAC

There are several approaches to OFAC screening:

Manual search: OFAC provides a free search tool on the Treasury Department website. However, manual searches are time-consuming and miss transliteration variants.

Automated screening: Professional screening tools like Isarud use fuzzy matching algorithms that catch spelling variations, transliterations from non-Latin scripts, and partial name matches that simple text searches miss.

Understanding Fuzzy Matching

Names on the SDN list come from many languages and writing systems. A name transliterated from Arabic, Russian, or Chinese can have multiple valid English spellings. For example, "Mohammed" might also appear as "Muhammad," "Mohamed," or "Muhammed."

Effective screening tools use multiple matching techniques including trigram similarity, Levenshtein distance (edit distance), Soundex (phonetic matching), and Metaphone algorithms to catch these variations.

Best Practices for OFAC Compliance

Screen before every transaction: Check all counterparties, beneficial owners, and intermediaries before engaging in any business relationship.

Re-screen regularly: The SDN list is updated frequently. Set up automated re-screening of existing relationships whenever the list changes.

Document everything: Maintain records of all screenings, including date, query, results, and any follow-up actions taken.

Establish a compliance program: Even small businesses should have written policies and procedures for sanctions compliance.

Use appropriate matching thresholds: Set your fuzzy matching sensitivity based on your risk tolerance. Higher sensitivity catches more potential matches but requires more manual review.

What to Do When You Find a Match

If your screening returns a potential match, do not proceed with the transaction. Gather additional identifying information (date of birth, nationality, address) to determine if the match is a true positive or a false positive. If you cannot rule out the match, consult your compliance officer or legal advisor.

If you determine that a true match exists, you must block the transaction and report it to OFAC within 10 business days.

Screen with Isarud

Isarud provides automated OFAC screening with fuzzy matching across the SDN list, EU Consolidated List, UN Security Council List, and UK Sanctions List — all in one search. Results are color-coded (green for clear, red for match, yellow for possible match) and can be exported as PDF reports for your compliance files.