OFAC Sanctions Screener – Bulk SDN List Name Check with Fuzzy Matching

Screen a list of people, companies, vessels or aircraft against the U.S. Treasury OFAC SDN sanctions list in one run, with fuzzy matching for typos, aliases and word order – no API key.

The Actor downloads the official SDN list files (public-domain U.S. government data from the Sanctions List Service) at the start of a run (cached for the day), so results are always current. No API key and no web scraping.

Screening aid only. This is not legal advice and not a substitute for compliance due diligence. Always verify potential matches in the official OFAC Sanctions List Search before acting. Not affiliated with or endorsed by OFAC / U.S. Treasury.

OFAC screening use cases: vendors, customers, payees

Vendor / customer onboarding checks, payment and payee list screening, marketplace seller checks, crypto and fintech KYC pre-screening, periodic re-screening of a customer list.

Input: list of names to screen

Field	Description
names (required)	List of names to screen.
minScore	Minimum match score 50–100 (default 88). Higher = fewer false positives.
maxMatchesPerName	Max matches returned per name, 1–25 (default 5).
entityType	any, individual, entity, vessel, aircraft.
programs	Optional OFAC program filter, e.g. ["CUBA","SDGT"].

{ "names": ["Banco Nacionl de Cuba", "Acme Plumbing Services LLC"], "minScore": 88, "maxMatchesPerName": 3 }

Output: match score, alias, programs per name

{
  "inputName": "Banco Nacionl de Cuba",
  "status": "POTENTIAL_MATCH",
  "topScore": 98.9,
  "matches": [{
    "uid": "306", "score": 98.9, "matchedName": "BANCO NACIONAL DE CUBA",
    "matchedOn": "primary", "type": "entity", "programs": ["CUBA"],
    "remarks": "a.k.a. 'BNC'.", "aliasCount": 1
  }],
  "listLastModified": "Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:03:09 GMT",
  "disclaimer": "Screening aid only. ..."
}

status is POTENTIAL_MATCH or NO_MATCH. See samples/output.json for a real run (typo'd name, alias match, clean name).

Fuzzy matching accuracy (SDN list test, 19,484 entries)

• 186 of 200 randomly perturbed real SDN names (typos / reordering / dropped words) were found: 93% recall.
• 0 of 100 random non-sanctioned business names produced a match at the default threshold. These are our own tests and do not guarantee results on your data.

OFAC screening pricing (pay per name)

$0.008 per name screened (including names with no match). Batch of 1,000 names = $8.

Related searches: OFAC SDN search, sanctions screening API, sanctions list checker, watchlist screening, AML KYC name check, Treasury SDN fuzzy match.

Run via API (cURL)

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/exprmntl~ofac-sanctions-batch-screener/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"names": ["Banco Nacional de Cuba", "Jon Smith"], "minScore": 88}'

Run from Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("exprmntl/ofac-sanctions-batch-screener").call(run_input={"names": ["Banco Nacional de Cuba", "Jon Smith"], "minScore": 88})
for item in client.dataset(run["default_dataset_id"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Running with no input performs a small demo run with example data.

FAQ

How do I check a list of names against the OFAC SDN list? Paste the names into names (or send them via API). Each name gets a status, top score and the matching SDN entries.

Does it catch misspellings and aliases? Yes. Matching is fuzzy (typos, word order, legal-suffix noise) and covers SDN aliases (AKAs).

How current is the sanctions data? The official SDN files are downloaded from Treasury's Sanctions List Service at run time (cached for a day).

Can I reduce false positives? Raise minScore (e.g. 92) or filter by entityType and programs.

Is this a compliance-certified tool? No. It is a screening aid; verify every potential hit in OFAC's official Sanctions List Search. Not legal advice; not affiliated with OFAC.