# Sanctions Screening

*Banking & Payments — Finicade finance glossary*

Sanctions screening checks customers and transactions against government lists of prohibited people, entities and countries. Unlike most compliance obligations it is strict liability: intent doesn't matter and a single processed payment can trigger enormous penalties. The practical difficulty is false positives — common names generate thousands of alerts for every genuine match, which is where most of the operational cost sits.

**Also known as:** OFAC screening, sanctions list, watchlist screening

**Related terms:** [Anti-Money Laundering (AML)](https://finicade.com/glossary/anti-money-laundering), [Know Your Customer (KYC)](https://finicade.com/glossary/know-your-customer), [Correspondent Banking](https://finicade.com/glossary/correspondent-banking), [SWIFT](https://finicade.com/glossary/swift), [Compliance](https://finicade.com/glossary/compliance)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/sanctions-screening