OFAC Mcp Compliance Guide Part 1
How to add OFAC sanctions screening to agents that use the Model Context Protocol, or MCP, before they pay.
TL;DR
TL;DR: MCP connects agents to tools that can move money, but MCP itself does not screen counterparties. Install the sanctions MCP server with pip install sanctions-mcp to add a check that ALLOWs clean parties and BLOCKs flagged ones.
What MCP does and does not do
The Model Context Protocol lets an agent call external tools through a standard interface. Those tools may include payment or transfer functions. MCP routes the request but performs no OFAC screening, so a flagged wallet or SDN name can slip through unless a screening step is added to the flow.
Adding screening via MCP
The sanctions-mcp server exposes sanctions_check, risk_score, kya_verify, and dispute_open as tools an agent can call. A single check returns in under 100 ms, drawing on 947 OFAC-listed crypto wallets and 19,218 SDN names from the US Treasury sdn.csv, synced hourly.
Practical steps
- Install the server with pip install sanctions-mcp.
- Call sanctions_check before any transfer tool.
- Route flagged results to BLOCK and clean results to ALLOW.