OFAC (the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control) maintains the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list — the single most consequential sanctions list in global finance. Any payment touching a US correspondent is screened against it.
The SDN list contains roughly 9,500 individuals and entities as of mid-2026. Updates happen weekly or more often during geopolitical events.
OFAC also maintains program-specific lists (Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, etc.) and sectoral sanctions lists (SSI list — restricts but does not block).
US extraterritorial reach: any USD transaction touching the US correspondent banking system is subject to OFAC screening, regardless of which countries the sender or beneficiary are in. This is why a Pakistan-to-Brazil USD wire is screened against OFAC.
False positives: any name matching even fuzzily to an SDN listing flags. Common-name false positives ("Mohammad", "Wang", "Rodriguez") are frequent. The screening bank reviews; legitimate parties release.
Mitigation: provide complete structured beneficiary data (full name, date of birth where appropriate, complete address with country code). Names matching SDN entries with different DOB or address release faster.
Sectoral sanctions (Russia, especially): not blocking but restrictive. Some products / counterparties allowed; others not. Banks check both SDN and SSI for Russian-related flows.
Yes — OFAC publishes the SDN search tool free. Pre-checking high-value beneficiaries is good practice.
You can file a removal request. The process is slow (months to years) and requires legal representation. Rare for ordinary individuals.
Yes — the EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions list, plus member-state national lists. UK has HMT OFSI. Each is screened by relevant banks.
Yes — major regulated crypto exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken) screen against OFAC and block listed wallets.