OFAC guides: searches, SDN checks, matches, and requirements

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Choose the question you need to answer

OFAC is an authority, not one single list. Start by understanding the agency and the data you need, then move into search procedure, candidate review, and the controls around the result. These guides keep a completed selected-source comparison separate from a legal conclusion about an activity.

Use the overview and SDN guide for foundational questions. Use the search and match guides when handling a specific workflow. Requirements and recordkeeping pages address scope rather than prescribing one universal commercial screening process. The official authority remains the source for applicable restrictions and current guidance.

Understand the scope and the first decision

What is OFAC? Sanctions lists, screening, and business obligations. Understand what OFAC does, which sanctions lists it publishes, and how an OFAC check differs from a compliance or customer approval decision.

What is the OFAC SDN List? Records, aliases, and screening. Learn what the OFAC SDN List contains, how to read a source record, and why aliases, entity types, and ownership matter in sanctions screening.

What is an OFAC check? Meaning, results, and next steps. See what an OFAC check compares, what potential-match and no-match results mean, and what information a business should retain after screening.

How to perform an OFAC search and check a possible match. Follow an OFAC search workflow: select SDN or Non-SDN coverage, use known identifiers, review candidates, and document the result without false clearance.

What happens if you get an OFAC match? A review workflow. Learn how to investigate a possible OFAC match, preserve identifying evidence, escalate unresolved cases, and separate identity from legal disposition.

Build the review and operating process

OFAC screening requirements: obligations and practical controls. Separate OFAC legal obligations from screening procedures. Build coverage, review, escalation, recordkeeping, and testing controls around your actual risk.

Who must comply with OFAC? Businesses, people, and screening scope. Understand OFAC’s general jurisdiction, why nonbanks still consider sanctions, and how compliance obligations differ from a universal screening mandate.

OFAC SDN vs Non-SDN: coverage and restrictions are different. Compare OFAC SDN and Non-SDN coverage, preserve underlying list identities, and avoid treating every OFAC screening result as a blocking designation.

OFAC recordkeeping: screening evidence and retention policy. Understand current OFAC recordkeeping periods, distinguish legal retention from product settings, and preserve screening decisions with usable evidence.

OFAC batch screening: review every row, not just the upload. Plan bulk OFAC screening with stable subject IDs, explicit source coverage, per-row outcomes, safe retries, and a practical analyst handoff.

Keep the related controls connected

Sanctions screening false positives: a review checklist. Review sanctions screening alerts with a practical identity checklist, synthetic examples, decision notes, and official OFAC guidance.

OFAC’s 50 Percent Rule and the limits of name screening. Understand OFAC’s 50 Percent Rule with synthetic ownership examples, a review checklist, and the limits of a sanctions list search.

Sanctions name matching: aliases, fuzzy matches, and review. Understand fuzzy sanctions name matching, aliases, supported multilingual spelling variants, and useful missing facts for investigating potential matches.

OFAC API guide: sources, requests, review, and monitoring. Build an OFAC screening integration with explicit SDN or non-SDN coverage, a working sandbox request, safe error handling, and retained review evidence.

Use the guide as part of a defined procedure

These pages explain workflows and product boundaries. They do not establish whether a specific person is a listed identity, replace current official guidance, or decide whether a transaction is authorized. Keep the source comparison, remaining uncertainty, required review, and separate business action in the record.

For product behavior, use the published documentation and current source coverage. For a customer or vendor workflow, start with the actual legal party and preserve the evidence behind the decision.