Last reviewed: · Curated by Ohmyfin Organisation editorial.
Sanctions screening is the regulatory process of checking every cross-border payment's sender, beneficiary, banks and references against international sanctions lists (OFAC, EU, UN, HMT and dozens more) before releasing the funds.
Details
Every correspondent bank in the chain does its own screening. A "fuzzy" name match — e.g. a beneficiary whose name resembles a sanctioned individual — can pause the payment for hours or days while compliance staff investigate.
On Ohmyfin, the SWIFT GPI status will read ACWP (accepted with pending change) or sit on ACSP (accepted, settlement in progress) for an unusually long time when screening is the cause.
Ohmyfin also offers a free sanctions-list lookup at /sanctions for senders who want to pre-screen their own counter-parties.
Key facts
Mandatory at every correspondent bank in the chain
Checks against OFAC, EU, UN, HMT and country-specific lists
Common cause of wire-transfer delays of hours or days
Pre-screen counter-parties on /sanctions
Frequently asked questions
Why is my payment stuck in sanctions screening?
A name, address or reference matched a sanctions-list entry. The bank's compliance team has to clear the alert manually before the payment proceeds.
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