Practical guides on OFAC, EU, UK and UN sanctions screening — for compliance, KYC, AML, and onboarding teams.
Sanctions screening explained: what it is, why regulators require it, which lists to screen against (OFAC, EU, UK, UN), and how to do it without drowning in false positives.
Read article →Step-by-step guide to running a free OFAC check against the SDN list — what to type, how to read the result, and when a fuzzy match needs analyst review.
Read article →A practical guide to the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list — how it's structured, how often it changes, and how to screen against it effectively.
Read article →EU and U.S. sanctions overlap heavily but enforce differently. Here's how to read both lists and avoid common compliance gaps.
Read article →How fuzzy name matching actually works, why naive substring search produces dangerous false positives, and how to tune your match thresholds.
Read article →What PEP screening is, why FATF and AMLD require it, how PEPs differ from sanctioned individuals, and how to run enhanced due diligence without drowning in false positives.
Read article →What AML screening software actually does, the features that matter (sanctions lists, PEPs, adverse media, fuzzy matching, batch and API), and how to evaluate vendors without overpaying.
Read article →How the UK sanctions regime works post-Brexit, what the OFSI Consolidated List contains, and how to run a UK sanctions check without missing designations the EU and US lists don't carry.
Read article →A plain-English guide to the Currency Transaction Report (CTR): the $10,000 threshold, aggregation rules, FinCEN Form 112, filing deadlines, and how CTRs connect to sanctions screening and SAR workflows.
Read article →A practical guide to Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs): the $5,000 threshold, the 30-day filing deadline, FinCEN Form 111, common red flags, and how to write a defensible SAR narrative.
Read article →A practical AML compliance checklist covering the five pillars, KYC, sanctions and PEP screening, transaction monitoring, SAR and CTR filing, training, and independent testing.
Read article →KYC and AML are related but distinct. Here's what each one means, where they overlap, how sanctions and PEP screening fit in, and what a modern KYC + AML workflow looks like end-to-end.
Read article →The OFAC 50 Percent Rule automatically extends sanctions to any entity owned 50% or more by blocked persons. Here's how it works, why aggregating ownership matters, and how to screen for it.
Read article →The EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List covers every EU designation in one dataset. Here's what's in it, how it differs from OFAC, and how to search it in seconds.
Read article →How to download the OFAC SDN list, which format to use (XML, CSV, or PIP-delimited), how often to refresh it, and why most compliance teams stop downloading it altogether.
Read article →The OFAC SDN list updates multiple times per week — sometimes daily. Here's the real cadence, why monthly re-screening isn't enough, and how to stay current without babysitting the feed.
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