An efficient OFAC API to maximize checks against sanctions
Screen businesses through Middesk’s OFAC API to ensure they aren’t sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Business Profiles
Coverage in the US
Update frequency
Business registries
What is an OFAC API?
An OFAC API integrates into your KYB platform to automatically screen your business customers against sanctions lists from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This includes whether any people or countries associated with those businesses are on one or more of OFAC’s lists.
OFAC’s sanctions lists designate people, businesses, or countries deemed threats to US national security or foreign policy. Business dealings between them and US citizens or companies are restricted or outright forbidden, so an OFAC API helps your company avoid associating with them, thereby complying with US law.
How the OFAC API works
Step 1
All you need to get started is an API key, along with the names and addresses of the businesses you want to screen.
Step 2
Our Verify package automatically screens against all OFAC lists, as well as several other key US sanctions lists.
Step 3
We’ll return whether or not there were any list hits, as well as details for which entities were on which lists and how many total hits there were.
Step 4
Your report will also include other information we can verify about the business, and we’ll keep you up to date if information is added or changed.
Information you can get using our OFAC API
Beyond checking for presence on OFAC lists, here are other details you can verify about businesses (and associated people) through our Verify system.
Middesk Business Verification Data Sources
Data You Can Access
What Do You Need to Know?
Watchlist hits & PEP screening
Is the business, anyone associated with it, or the country in which it operates on an OFAC sanctions list or any other prominent US or global watchlist? Is anyone involved with the business a politically exposed person? If so, how does this restrict or prevent me from doing business with them out of compliance concerns?
Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)
Who is ultimately in control of the business? Is their identifying information correct? Are they on any watchlists that would indicate them being a business risk?
Business industry classification (NAICS, SIC)
What kind of economic activity does the business conduct? Are there restrictions or prohibitions on this kind of economic activity?
Liens & litigations
Has the business been in legal trouble before, or is it now? Does another entity currently have legal claim to its property if it defaults on a debt?
Bankruptcy data
Has the business ever filed for bankruptcy, or is it in the process of doing so? What financial risk does that present to my company?
Business name, address, & phone number
Has the business’ basic identifying information been verified and filed with the proper authorities (such as SOS offices)?
Business documents
Am I able to confirm that a business has valid formation documents on file with regulators? Is the business legally allowed to exist within the jurisdiction in which it operates?
Business license
Does the business have the proper licensing it needs in light of any additional regulations on its industry?
EIN / Business Tax ID
Is the business properly set up to pay taxes with the IRS and other tax authorities?
Applications for our OFAC check API
Many industries can make use of our OFAC API to avoid illegally giving financial resources to entities on OFAC lists.
Fintechs
For fintechs, offering speed and convenience that competes with traditional banks shouldn’t mean sacrificing safety or regulatory compliance. Using our OFAC check API allows fintechs to preserve their agility advantage, while still identifying sanctioned entities and avoiding taking them on as customers.
Insurance
Insuring sanctioned entities creates the risk of them perpetrating fraud, which can lead into more serious financial crimes such as terrorist and WMD financing. Checking them during onboarding, or even during a due diligence review, with the OFAC API enables insurers to stop this problem before it starts.
Commercial banking
Banks may have hundreds or thousands of business customers to manage, and don’t want to unwittingly end up providing financial resources for criminals. The OFAC sanctions list API screens not only businesses, but also their associated people and countries, so banks know which entities don’t qualify for its services.
Lenders
Lending money to a sanctioned entity carries high risks that the lender will not get the money back, and that the money could be used towards further crime. Our OFAC sanctions list API provides lenders with a tool to identify and reject some of the riskiest borrowers.
Marketplace
Sanctioned entities may try to commit fraud under the radar by sneaking into smaller commerce hubs. Marketplace administrators can preserve their reputation – and their customers’ trust – by screening businesses through our OFAC API and weeding out any that aren’t allowed to do business there.
Payments platforms
Services that facilitate moving money around in a marketplace don’t want to be complicit in moving money for actors with a history of using it for nefarious purposes. With our OFAC list API, payment processors can check the entities money is coming from or going to in order to make sure they’re allowed to be in the marketplace in the first place.
Make OFAC compliance screening simple and fast with our OFAC API
Check entities against all OFAC lists
Our OFAC API screens entities against not just the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, but also other OFAC lists such as the Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE) and CAPTA lists.
Get the latest OFAC information daily
Our OFAC API refreshes its data every day by checking the official OFAC Consolidated Sanctions List. So there’s little need to worry about missing a prospective (or even current) customer being added to an OFAC list – you’ll always know within 24 hours.
Expand coverage with all US watchlists
Our Verify package screens not only OFAC lists, but also several other key US sanctions lists from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the State Department. This increases your risk assessment coverage to catch more businesses – and associated people and countries – that may be illegal to deal with, or at least have restrictions on doing so.
Save time with bulk screening
Our API will automatically screen all businesses you enter into our system against OFAC and other US sanctions lists. There’s no need to check each business you want to verify against the OFAC Consolidated Sanctions List – or any other US watchlist – one at a time.
Start building with our easy-to-integrate OFAC API
What makes Middesk’s OFAC API unique?
Covers all OFAC & US lists
Middesk doesn’t just have an OFAC SDN API. Our API screens against all sanctions lists published by OFAC, as well as other US sanctions lists published by the BIS and State Department.
Fresh data daily
Middesk pulls new US sanctions data directly from government sources every 24 hours, so you’ll always know within a day if a business (or associated person or country) is added to an OFAC list.
Flexible search parameters
Our OFAC search API includes tools such as fuzzy name matching, date of birth filtering, and filtering by watchlist or issuing agency. Use these to minimize false positives and negatives.
More than sanctions screening
Our Verify system includes more data for KYB than just watchlist hits. Verify the business has a valid address, TIN, suite of formation documents, and so on.
How Radius Bank finds more hours in the day with Middesk
“Every minute we’re able to save in processing loans is a minute faster than a small business will have access to the capital they need. With Middesk, what ordinarily would have taken us hours to do is now taking us minutes. We take pride in partnering with technology companies that help us serve our customers better.”
How Novo redefines its KYB process with Middesk’s verification product
“Middesk's market-leading methods challenge the established legacy approach to verification. Their product has unlocked significant efficiency, enhancing the onboarding experience for small businesses to access Novo. Middesk’s ground-up approach to product development played an integral part in increasing confidence in KYB, both internally and with partners.”
Driving team efficiency and performance with Clearco
“Middesk's Lien Search product has allowed my team to focus on value-add activities like making deals rather than tedious tasks like sifting through UCC portals. My team is faster and happier with getting business owners the capital they need to grow their businesses.”
Leveling up Plaid’s onboarding process with seamless KYB
“When a customer signs up for Plaid, they want to start building on our APIs right away. Middesk has been a critical partner enabling us to quickly and seamlessly onboard new customers.”
Frequently Asked Questions about OFAC APIs
As a US government agency, OFAC has the authority to place restrictions – or even prohibitions – on dealings between US citizens/companies and entities determined to be threats to US national security or foreign policy. If you do not screen for these entities and end up associating with one or more of them, you will be breaking US law and can face severe consequences – even criminal ones.
Our data on OFAC sanctions comes directly from OFAC’s Consolidated Sanctions List, an aggregated list of all entities on each of OFAC’s separate sanctions lists. In addition to pulling data from the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC’s parent agency), we also extract data on sanctions lists from the State Department and BIS. This data is refreshed every 24 hours.
There are several problems you’ll run into if you try to conduct OFAC screening manually.
OFAC’s search system doesn’t include advanced fuzzy matching capabilities, date-of-birth filtering, or specific list filtering. This can make it difficult to avoid false positives or negatives due to name variations (alternate spellings, nicknames, aliases, abbreviations, contractions, acronyms, etc.).
The larger issue is that you have to screen each of your business customers – including their associated people – one at a time. This is incredibly time-consuming, and prohibitively inefficient if you have hundreds or thousands of customers you need to process quickly.
You need an account here with us at Middesk, our Verify product, and an API key. Getting all that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes!
At minimum, all you need is the business’s official name and registered address. However, you can also input other information such as the business’s website or a list of people associated with the business to narrow down your search. The more information you provide, the faster we can find the business and verify if the information is accurate!
You just need to create a “Business” file or update an existing one, fill in any required information, and place an “Order” request for “Watchlist”. Middesk will do the rest! It all just takes a few minutes.
Auto-screen businesses and associated people against OFAC lists
Try our OFAC API as part of our Verify package
