Sanctions list
The OFAC SDN list (Specially Designated Nationals): what it is and how to screen against it
The OFAC SDN list — the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List — is the US Treasury's primary sanctions list: the people, companies, vessels and aircraft whose property US persons must block. CompliAPI ingests it every 15 minutes and screens the identifiers in every record.
- Publisher
- US Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control
- List type
- Sanctions
- Refresh
- Ingested every 15 minutes
- API list slug
ofac- Official source
- OFAC Sanctions List Search
- Search it live
- Check a name against the SDN list free
About this list
The SDN list is published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the US Department of the Treasury. It names individuals, companies, vessels and aircraft blocked under US sanctions programs; US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them, and the list is the reference point for most sanctions-screening obligations touching the US financial system.
SDN records go far beyond names: many designations carry the digital-currency addresses, email addresses, websites and identity documents that OFAC attributes to the listed party. Those identifiers are what CompliAPI extracts and screens against, because an identifier check is exact where a name check is fuzzy.
The latest OFAC SDN list is always the one Treasury publishes on its Sanctions List Service: the Advanced Sanctions Data Model file (sdn_advanced.xml) and the legacy flat files (sdn.xml, sdn.csv and their companion files), with each change announced on OFAC's Recent Actions page (ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions, verified September 2026). CompliAPI checks Treasury's publication stream every 15 minutes, so the list it screens against is the current one; the schemas and parsing notes live in the format guide below.
The SDN list is not the only US screening list. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security publishes export-control lists — the Denied Persons List, the Entity List, the Unverified List — and the State Department publishes nonproliferation and AECA debarment lists; the International Trade Administration merges all of them with OFAC's lists into its Consolidated Screening List (trade.gov, verified September 2026). CompliAPI screens OFAC's SDN list and its Consolidated (non-SDN) list, not the export-control lists — a searcher looking for an "OFAC denied parties list" usually means one of those two.
OFAC also runs country-level sanctions programs. CompliAPI covers those through a separately curated country list used by the country-screening and geolocation endpoints, with a source link for each designation.
What CompliAPI extracts
- Crypto wallet addresses (ETH, BTC, XMR, USDT and more)
- Email addresses
- Websites and domains
- Government-issued IDs — passports, tax IDs, registration numbers
How CompliAPI handles it
The latest SDN list, fetched every 15 minutes
OFAC's change feed is checked every 15 minutes, and new publications are downloaded and parsed immediately, so list changes show up within minutes of being published.
Reconciled, not replaced
Each run reconciles against what is already stored: new identifiers are added, and identifiers that disappear from the list are marked as delisted rather than deleted — screening only matches current entries, while the audit history is kept.
Source record on every match
Every match links to the entity's official record on OFAC's Sanctions List Search, so a reviewer can read the underlying designation.
Screen against this list
Every /screen endpoint checks all enabled lists by default and names the list behind each match. Add the ?lists= filter to restrict a request to this source.
GET /api/v1/screen/crypto/{address}?lists=ofac
curl "https://api.compliapi.com/api/v1/screen/crypto/0x098B716B8Aaf21512996dC57EB0615e2383E2f96?lists=ofac" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $COMPLIAPI_TOKEN"Response
{
"value": "0x098b716b8aaf21512996dc57eb0615e2383e2f96",
"flagged": true,
"sanctioned": true,
"lists_checked": ["ofac"],
"matches": [
{
"list": "ofac",
"list_name": "US OFAC SDN",
"list_type": "sanctions",
"match": "exact",
"value": "0x098B716B8Aaf21512996dC57EB0615e2383E2f96",
"source_url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=27307"
}
]
}Frequently asked questions
What is the OFAC SDN list?
The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, published by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. It names parties blocked under US sanctions programs, and many records include identifiers — crypto addresses, emails, websites, identity documents — that OFAC attributes to the listed party.
Which identifiers does CompliAPI extract from SDN records?
Digital-currency addresses across the chains OFAC publishes (ETH, BTC, XMR, USDT and more), email addresses, websites and domains, and government-issued IDs such as passports, tax IDs and registration numbers. Country designations are covered by a separately curated list.
How quickly do SDN changes appear in screening results?
The list is ingested every 15 minutes. New designations become matchable on the next ingestion run, and identifiers OFAC removes stop matching at the same cadence.
What happens when OFAC delists an entity?
Delisted identifiers are stamped with a removal date and excluded from screening, but the rows are kept for audit history. The public /delisted page and the recently-delisted API endpoint report what came off each list.
Can I screen against the SDN list alone?
Yes. Every /screen endpoint checks all enabled lists by default; add ?lists=ofac to restrict a request to SDN data only.
What does it mean to be on the OFAC SDN list?
A listed party's property and interests in property under US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. Under OFAC's 50 Percent Rule (FAQ 401), entities owned 50 percent or more, directly or indirectly, by one or more blocked persons are treated as blocked too, even when they are not named on the list. Any crypto address, email, website or ID number in the record becomes an identifier that screening systems match against.
How do I check if someone is on the OFAC SDN list?
OFAC's own Sanctions List Search at sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov is the authoritative place to confirm a designation. For a quick lookup, the free browser search at /tools/sdn-search runs against CompliAPI's copy, refreshed every 15 minutes, and names the list behind every result. For software, one GET request per identifier on the /api/v1/screen endpoints returns the match with its official source record. A name match is a candidate for review, not a verdict.
Related
Sanctions list
The US OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN) list
How CompliAPI ingests OFAC's Consolidated Sanctions List — the non-SDN designations under SSI, NS-CMIC, NS-MBS and other programs — refreshed every 15 minutes alongside the SDN list.
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The UK Sanctions List (FCDO)
How CompliAPI ingests the UK Sanctions List: the FCDO's official XML, the single UK designation list since January 2026, parsed daily for emails, websites, IDs and crypto addresses.
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FBI-published Lazarus Group crypto addresses
How CompliAPI screens the crypto addresses the FBI attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group after the $41M Stake.com theft: transcribed verbatim from the official press release and checked on every crypto screen.
Sanctions screening
OFAC API — screen against the official SDN list
Screen crypto wallets, emails, IDs and countries against the official US Treasury OFAC SDN list, refreshed every 15 minutes.
Sanctions screening
Wallet screening API for crypto compliance
Automated crypto wallet and address screening against OFAC and global sanctions lists in one GET request.
Screen against US OFAC SDN data
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CompliAPI provides data and tools that support compliance workflows. It does not provide legal advice, and organizations should determine their obligations with qualified counsel.