Screen a name against the OFAC SDN list

What it is for

Before paying, shipping to or contracting with a party, a business often must check that the party is not on the US Treasury's SDN list. This compares a name with every SDN entry and alias and returns the closest matches with their programs, so a person can review a possible hit instead of reading a 19,000-row list.

Exporters, payment and marketplace operators, freight forwarders and finance teams running a pre-payment or pre-shipment check, and agents doing it for them.

What happens to a request

The name is normalized and compared with the copy of the SDN list (primary names and aliases) that this service refreshes daily from OFAC. The answer lists matches above the similarity floor with their score, OFAC entry number, type and programs, and the publication the copy came from. A match is a lead to review, not a determination.

What you get

A JSON answer with the matches (OFAC entry number, listed name or alias, score, type, programs), the list publication date and the time the copy was fetched.

Scope and limits

The US OFAC SDN list only; it applies to US persons and transactions with a US nexus.

• Not a compliance determination: a reviewer must confirm or dismiss any match.
• Other lists (EU, UK, UN, OFAC non-SDN consolidated lists) are not screened.
• Matching is on names only; dates of birth, addresses and identifiers are not compared.

What you can specify

• a person's or company's name
• entity type (individual or organization)
• how strict the match should be

Operations

GET /sanctions-screening/op/screen

SDN entries and aliases whose normalized name is similar to the given name, with scores, programs and the list publication date.

Price: free, within a daily budget.

Example answer:

{
  "query": "Banco Nacional de Cuba",
  "matches": [
    {
      "ofac_uid": "306",
      "listed_name": "BANCO NACIONAL DE CUBA",
      "score": 1,
      "type": "organization",
      "programs": "CUBA",
      "list": "SDN"
    }
  ],
  "publication": "2026-10-27",
  "fetched_at": "2026-11-03T06:17:00Z",
  "note": "A match is a lead for review, not a sanctions determination."
}

Sources: OFAC Sanctions List Service, SDN.CSV and ALT.CSV (US government work, public). Limits: names up to 200 characters; at most 20 matches per answer.

Next step

Call GET /sanctions-screening/op/screen?name=... (free, within a daily budget). Or describe the screening you need that this does not cover, such as other lists or batch files.

Or send JSON to POST /sanctions-screening/requests (schema: /sanctions-screening/schema.json). Example:

{
  "action": "verify",
  "need": "Check Banco Nacional de Cuba against sanctions lists before we accept a wire.",
  "specifications": {
    "party_name": "Banco Nacional de Cuba",
    "party_type": "organization",
    "lists_required": [
      "OFAC SDN"
    ]
  }
}

Sources for statements on this page

• OFAC publishes the SDN list and its aliases as downloadable files. sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov