OFAC sanctions screening for developers: Complete guide

A complete walkthrough of adding sanctions screening to your stack, from the first API call to production monitoring and maintenance.

TL;DR

TL;DR: Screen every counterparty before payment with one HTTP call, block flagged results, fail closed on errors, and monitor coverage in production.

API integration

Start with a single screening call placed directly before any payment or transfer. Send the counterparty's wallet address or name and read back a clean or flagged result. SanctionsAI returns this in under 100 ms and exposes tools like sanctions_check, risk_score, kya_verify, and dispute_open.

Testing

Cover clean, flagged, and error responses in your test suite. Confirm that a flagged result blocks the transaction and that a network error does not default to allow. OFAC enforces with strict liability, so the check must be a hard gate, not a best-effort log.

Production deployment and maintenance

Deploy the check as a gate in your release pipeline and monitor coverage, match rate, and response time. Keep the data fresh: SanctionsAI syncs hourly across 947 OFAC-listed wallets, 19,218 SDN names, and 16 jurisdictions. It is MIT-licensed and self-hostable, with a free tier of 5 checks per day and no key required.