OFAC compliance for payment companies
Payment companies move money at scale, so OFAC treats them as a frontline compliance obligation.
TL;DR
TL;DR: Payment companies face some of the heaviest OFAC obligations. Every transaction, every counterparty, and every jurisdiction must be screened, and the standard is strict liability.
Why the burden is heavy
Payment companies process large volumes, which means a single unscreened rail repeats the same failure thousands of times. OFAC's standard is strict liability, so intent is not required, and civil penalties start at $356,000 per violation. Aggravating factors such as a missing compliance program can push that number higher.
What a screen must cover
- Counterparty names against 19,218 SDN names.
- Wallet addresses against 947 OFAC-listed crypto wallets.
- Jurisdiction checks across 16 regions.
- A recorded STAMP for every clean screen.
Practical controls
Automate the SCREEN, SCORE, STOP, STAMP protocol at the payment step. sanctionsai.dev returns a decision in under 100 ms, fast enough to sit inside authorization without slowing the payment, and includes a $10K legal-fee guarantee on paid plans.