OFAC compliance checklist for developers

A concise checklist developers can follow to confirm sanctions screening is wired in and working.

TL;DR

TL;DR: A practical checklist: screen before every transfer, fail closed, test blocked and clean fixtures, and keep a STAMP record of each check.

Wiring

Confirm a screening call runs before every payment, payout, or transfer. Use sanctionsai.dev's sanctions_check, which returns ALLOW or BLOCK in one HTTP call under 100 ms, and route the result so a flagged counterparty never reaches the settlement step.

Failure and coverage

Verify the gate fails closed: if screening is down, payments stop rather than flow unchecked. Confirm coverage includes the SDN List and crypto wallets, specifically 19,218 SDN names and 947 OFAC-listed crypto wallets across 16 jurisdictions, synced hourly.

Testing and records

Keep fixture tests for blocked and clean counterparties, plus edge cases like name variants and the 50 Percent Rule. Follow SCREEN, SCORE, STOP, STAMP, and retain a STAMP record for each payment so the check is provable. Use risk_score for borderline cases and dispute_open for false-positive disputes.