How OFAC list data is refreshed and how to check its freshness

CompliAPI checks the OFAC publication stream every 15 minutes and ingests any new publication immediately on detection. The OFAC SDN list and the OFAC Consolidated list (non-SDN programs such as SSI, NS-MBS, NS-CMIC, and NS-PLC) share a single publication stream, so both lists are kept in sync on the same schedule. You never need to trigger a refresh manually — as soon as OFAC publishes an update, it flows into the screening engine within minutes.

How to check current freshness

The GET /stats endpoint is free and unauthenticated. It returns a last_updated timestamp for every source list, plus an ofac_refresh object that describes the ingestion schedule in detail:

Call GET https://api.compliapi.com/api/v1/stats — no API token required.
Look at sources.ofac.last_updated and sources.ofac_consolidated.last_updated to see when each list was last successfully ingested.
Check ofac_refresh.check_minutes_utc to see the UTC minute marks each hour at which the OFAC changes feed is polled (for example, [7, 22, 37, 52]).
Read ofac_refresh.next_check_at for the exact UTC timestamp of the next scheduled check, computed fresh at request time.

Tips and related details

The top-level last_updated field in the /stats response reflects the most recent update across all lists, not just OFAC — use the per-list last_updated inside sources for OFAC-specific freshness.
Because a new OFAC publication is ingested immediately on detection rather than waiting for the next scheduled poll, the effective lag between an OFAC update and its availability in the API is typically well under 15 minutes.
The same freshness data is also visible in the GET /screen/lists response, which includes a last_updated field alongside entity counts for every enabled list.
If you need to be alerted when a specific entity's sanctions status changes rather than polling for list freshness, consider setting up monitoring webhooks, which fire an event whenever a monitored value is added to or removed from any list.