OFAC screening for payment networks

Major payment networks already screen; crypto and agent payment rails need the same discipline.

TL;DR

TL;DR: Payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and SWIFT have integrated sanctions screening. Crypto and agent payment networks must build the same screening into their rails.

How traditional networks do it

Established networks embed sanctions screening into their authorization and messaging flows. The screen is part of the network itself, so a sanctioned counterparty is caught as the payment or message passes through rather than after the fact.

What new rails need

• Screen every transaction on the network.
• Check names, wallet addresses, and jurisdictions.
• Return decisions in under 100 ms to avoid slowing payments.

How sanctionsai.dev fits

sanctionsai.dev is a one-call screening API for crypto and agent payment networks. It checks 19,218 SDN names, 947 OFAC-listed wallets, and 16 jurisdictions, returning clean equals ALLOW and flagged equals BLOCK, with x402 and MCP integrations.