OFAC screening for payment routing

Every intermediary in a payment route is another chance for a sanctions failure.

TL;DR

TL;DR: Payment routing through multiple intermediaries multiplies sanctions risk, because each hop is a potential compliance failure point that must be screened.

Why each hop matters

A payment can be routed through banks, processors, and networks that are themselves blocked or that sit in a blocked jurisdiction. Screening only the origin and destination misses the middle of the route, where a blocked intermediary can be selected by routing logic.

What to screen at each hop

• The identity of each intermediary.
• The jurisdiction at each decision point.
• The final counterparty.
• Retry and fallback paths, which change the route.

Practical controls

Screen before each hop and on every fallback, and record the full path. sanctionsai.dev returns ALLOW for clean and BLOCK for flagged in under 100 ms, so a blocked route is rejected before value moves.