Sanctions Screening API

About the Sanctions Screening API

Sanctions Screening works by matching your query against every name and alias on the OFAC SDN list using fuzzy name matching built for transliterated names. Sanctioned individuals are listed under many spellings, so exact comparison misses them. Each result carries a confidence score and the alias it matched on, letting you tune between catching more names and reviewing fewer false positives.

What people use it for

Customer Account Onboarding

Fintech platforms check applicant names against the SDN list during registration and pause signup if the match verdict returns high or exact confidence.

Cross-Border Wire Review

Flag beneficiary and originator names before processing international payments when screening detects matching sanctions entries and high confidence scores.

Cargo Vessel Chartering

When booking cargo carriers, maritime brokers screen vessel names against SDN records to verify no sanctions programs or blocked entities match the ship.

Vendor Procurement Auditing

To avoid illegal supplier contracts, corporate procurement teams screen new vendor entity names against OFAC records before issuing purchase orders or signing agreements.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — GET /v1/sanctionscreening

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Required

Optional

1
2

curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/sanctionscreening?name=Banco%20Nacional%20de%20Cuba&threshold=0.85&limit=10&type=individual" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/sanctionscreening

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77

{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "query": "Banco Nacional de Cuba",
    "matched": true,
    "matchCount": 1,
    "verdict": "exact",
    "topScore": 1,
    "results": [
      {
        "uid": 306,
        "name": "BANCO NACIONAL DE CUBA",
        "type": "entity",
        "score": 1,
        "confidence": "exact",
        "matchedOn": "BANCO NACIONAL DE CUBA",
        "matchedVia": "primary",
        "isWeakAlias": false,
        "programs": [
          "CUBA"
        ],
        "title": null,
        "aka": [
          {
            "name": "BNC",
            "type": "aka",
            "strength": "weak"
          },
          {
            "name": "NATIONAL BANK OF CUBA",
            "type": "aka",
            "strength": "strong"
          }
        ],
        "dateOfBirth": [],
        "placeOfBirth": [],
        "nationalities": [],
        "citizenships": [],
        "addresses": [
          {
            "address1": "Zweierstrasse 35",
            "city": "Zurich",
            "postalCode": "CH-8022",
            "country": "Switzerland"
          },
          {
            "address1": "Avenida de Concha Espina 8",
            "city": "Madrid",
            "postalCode": "E-28036",
            "country": "Spain"
          },
          {
            "address1": "Dai-Ichi Bldg. 6th Floor, 10-2 Nihombashi, 2-chome, Chuo-ku",
            "city": "Tokyo",
            "postalCode": "103",
            "country": "Japan"
          },
          {
            "address1": "Federico Boyd Avenue & 51 Street",
            "city": "Panama City",
            "country": "Panama"
          }
        ],
        "ids": [],
        "remarks": null
      }
    ],
    "list": {
      "source": "OFAC SDN",
      "authority": "US Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control",
      "publishDate": "07/15/2026",
      "recordCount": 19217,
      "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16T05:00:12.431Z"
    }
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 20 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive Sanctions Screening form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — Sanctions Screening API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1Data refreshed daily