Screen names against OFAC, EU, UK, UN, and five more sanctions lists in seconds. Real-time checks, continuous monitoring, and a REST API, with transparent pricing and a free plan.
Sanctions screening is the process of checking the names and identifying details of your customers, counterparties, and business partners against government and international sanctions lists. These lists, maintained by authorities such as the US Treasury's OFAC, the European Union, the UK's OFSI, and the UN Security Council, name the individuals, companies, vessels, and organizations that businesses are legally prohibited from transacting with. A confirmed match means you must stop the transaction, and in many cases freeze and report the assets involved.
The obligation is broad and the standard is strict. In many jurisdictions sanctions compliance operates under strict liability, meaning a business can be penalized even when it had no knowledge that a counterparty was designated. That exposure is not limited to banks: fintechs, payment processors, money service businesses, exporters, insurers, crypto exchanges, and online marketplaces all fall within scope when their transactions touch a sanctioning jurisdiction's financial system.
Manual sanctions screening, searching names one at a time on each authority's website, does not scale and misses the variations that matter. It cannot reliably catch transliterations, aliases, or spelling differences, it produces no consistent audit trail, and it cannot keep pace with lists that change multiple times a week. Automated sanctions screening software solves all three problems: it checks every relevant list at once, applies fuzzy matching to catch name variations, scores each potential match by risk, and records a documented decision trail for examiners.
SanctScan is sanctions screening software built for that job. A single search runs against nine global sanctions lists, returns risk-scored results in seconds, and lets you add high-priority entities to continuous monitoring so they are rescreened automatically whenever a list changes. For a practitioner-level explainer of the mechanics, the SDN list, and the OFAC 50% rule, read our guide to OFAC screening.
SanctScan combines broad list coverage with the matching, monitoring, and audit features a real compliance programme needs, in a tool you can start using in minutes.
Screen names with advanced fuzzy matching that catches aliases, transliterations, and alternative spellings, the variations that defeat manual list lookups. Every result comes with a transparent confidence score.
One search covers OFAC SDN, the US Consolidated list, EU, UK, UN, Australia (DFAT), Switzerland (SECO), Canada (GAC), and Japan (MOF), so you do not have to query each authority separately.
Add customers and counterparties to ongoing monitoring. SanctScan rescreens them automatically whenever a sanctions list is updated and sends instant email or webhook alerts when a risk profile changes.
Get results in seconds at the moment of onboarding or transaction, not in a weekly batch. Sanctions lists change multiple times a week, and real-time checks close the gap that batch screening leaves open.
Embed sanctions screening directly into your onboarding, payments, or KYC workflow with a simple JSON REST API and clear documentation. Screen programmatically and store results with full audit context.
Screen hundreds or thousands of entities at once by uploading a CSV. Track progress in real time and download results, ideal for periodic portfolio-wide rescreening.
Looking specifically for US Treasury coverage? See our dedicated OFAC screening software, or read how continuous sanctions monitoring closes the gap that one-time screening leaves open.
Screen against the principal sanctions and consolidated screening lists in a single pass, instead of querying each authority separately.
Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, the primary US sanctions list.
Combines OFAC lists with the Commerce Entity List and State debarred list.
The EU consolidated list of persons, groups, and entities subject to financial sanctions.
The UK financial sanctions consolidated list maintained by HM Treasury's OFSI.
The UN consolidated list applied by member states worldwide.
The DFAT consolidated list of sanctioned persons and entities.
SECO's list of sanctions adopted under Swiss law.
Global Affairs Canada sanctions under SEMA and related acts.
Ministry of Finance list of parties subject to Japanese asset-freeze measures.
Three steps from sign-up to a monitored, audit-ready screening programme. No implementation consultants, no multi-month rollout.
Type a single name for an instant sanctions check, or upload a CSV with hundreds of entities for bulk screening. Either way, the search runs against all nine supported sanctions lists in one pass.
Within seconds, SanctScan returns any potential matches, the confidence-based risk score for each, which lists were hit, and the full entity details from the source data, so your team can triage by risk rather than reviewing every row.
Add high-priority entities to continuous monitoring with one click. SanctScan rescreens them whenever the lists update and alerts you by email or webhook if anything changes, with a per-decision audit log captured automatically.
Sanctions obligations reach far beyond banks. Any business that onboards customers or pays counterparties across borders needs to screen.
Examined by regulators for sanctions program effectiveness under BSA/AML and equivalent regimes.
Same sanctions obligations as banks, usually at higher volume and faster onboarding speed.
Money transmitters, currency exchanges, and check cashers must screen all transactions and parties.
Sanctions exposure on every cross-border flow; real-time screening keeps prohibited payments from settling.
Sanctions authorities target wallets and counterparties; exchanges must screen names and addresses.
Must screen buyers, sellers, shippers, and end users against consolidated lists before every shipment.
Policyholders, claimants, and beneficiaries must be screened; insurers have faced significant penalties.
Onboarding sellers, hosts, or drivers at scale creates sanctions exposure that manual checks cannot cover.
Transparent, published pricing with no hidden fees. Start free and scale as your compliance needs grow.
How SanctScan compares to manual screening and traditional enterprise compliance platforms.
| Feature | SanctScan | Manual Process | Enterprise Solutions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Minutes | N/A | Weeks to months |
| Cost | From $0/mo | Staff time | Sales-quoted |
| Sanctions lists covered | 9 lists | Manual per-list | Varies |
| Real-time screening | No | Usually | |
| API access | No | Usually | |
| Continuous monitoring | No | Sometimes | |
| Bulk screening | No | Usually | |
| Rescreen on list update | Delta-driven | No | Batch weekly |
| Fuzzy match transparency | Visible scores | N/A | Black box |
| Audit trail | Per-decision log | Email threads | |
| Free tier | N/A | No |
Comparing specific vendors? Read SanctScan vs ComplyAdvantage or our roundup of sanctions screening software.
Sanctions screening is the process of checking individuals, organizations, and vessels against government and international sanctions lists to ensure you are not transacting with a designated party. Lists such as the OFAC SDN list, the EU consolidated list, the UK sanctions list, and the UN consolidated list name parties that businesses are legally prohibited from dealing with. Sanctions screening software automates these checks across all relevant lists and flags potential matches for review.
Sanctions screening compares the names and identifying details of your customers and counterparties against sanctions lists using fuzzy matching algorithms that account for spelling variations, transliterations, and aliases. Each potential match receives a confidence-based risk score so compliance teams can triage results quickly. With SanctScan, you enter a name or upload a list, get results against all nine supported lists in seconds, and can add high-risk entities to continuous monitoring for automatic rescreening when the lists change.
At minimum, most businesses screen against the OFAC SDN list. Depending on where you and your counterparties operate, you should also screen the US Consolidated Screening List, the EU consolidated sanctions list, the UK (OFSI) sanctions list, and the UN Security Council consolidated list. SanctScan screens against nine lists in a single pass: OFAC SDN, US Consolidated, EU, UK, UN, Australia (DFAT), Switzerland (SECO), Canada (GAC), and Japan (MOF).
Real-time sanctions screening checks a name against the sanctions lists at the moment a transaction or onboarding event occurs, rather than in a periodic batch. This matters because sanctions lists are updated multiple times per week, so a monthly batch leaves a multi-week window in which a newly designated party could still transact. SanctScan returns results in seconds via the web app or the REST API, and continuous monitoring rescreens existing entities whenever a list changes.
Sanctions screening checks names against legally binding sanctions and watchlists where a match prohibits the transaction. PEP screening checks whether a person is a politically exposed person, a higher-risk category that requires enhanced due diligence but is not itself a prohibition. They are complementary parts of an AML programme. SanctScan focuses on sanctions and watchlist screening across nine global lists.
Sanctions screening should be performed at onboarding, before processing transactions, and on an ongoing basis. Because sanctions lists change frequently, point-in-time screening alone is insufficient. Continuous monitoring, which automatically rescreens your existing customers and counterparties whenever a list is updated, is the gold standard and is included from SanctScan's Solo plan upward.
A false positive is a flagged match where the name aligns with a sanctioned party but secondary identifiers, such as date of birth, country, or government ID, rule out a true match. Handling false positives well means documenting which identifiers cleared the match, who decided, and when. SanctScan captures a per-decision audit log automatically, so analysts only enter their reasoning and examiners can review cleared alerts later.
Yes, for most businesses. Sanctions compliance operates under strict liability in many jurisdictions, meaning you can be penalized even without knowing a party was sanctioned. The obligation applies broadly to financial institutions, fintechs, money service businesses, exporters, marketplaces, insurers, and any business whose transactions touch a sanctioning jurisdiction's financial system. Automated screening provides the consistency and audit trail that manual checks cannot.
Watchlist screening is a broader term for checking names against any list of restricted or high-risk parties, including sanctions lists, regulatory debarment lists, and law-enforcement most-wanted lists. Sanctions screening is the core subset focused on legally binding economic sanctions. SanctScan's nine supported lists cover the principal sanctions and consolidated screening lists that most compliance programmes are required to check.
SanctScan starts free with 25 ad-hoc screenings per month and no credit card required. Paid plans are published transparently: Solo at $19/month (250 screenings, 25 monitored entities), Starter at $39/month (1,500 screenings, 150 monitored), and Growth at $149/month (unlimited screenings, 1,000 monitored). This contrasts with enterprise sanctions screening platforms, which are typically sold on sales-quoted annual contracts with multi-month implementations.
No credit card required. 25 free screenings per month, across all nine sanctions lists. Upgrade to Solo ($19/month) for continuous monitoring.
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