OFAC added 13 names to the SDN list on 28 October 2026. Ten were individuals and three were entities, one of them Zigama Credit and Savings Society, a financial institution in Kigali listed under the Democratic Republic of the Congo program. Any US person holding its funds had to freeze them. Blocking takes effect immediately. A firm learns of a change like this when its client screening and ongoing monitoring rereads the list against existing customers.
What does SDN stand for, and what is the OFAC SDN list?
SDN stands for Specially Designated National. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the US Treasury, keeps the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. OFAC's FAQ 18 puts two groups on it: people and companies "owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries", and terrorists, narcotics traffickers and others named under programs that are tied to no single country.
The full form is the same in banking and in government. For a bank, a customer or payee on the list is a blocked person, so the bank freezes their funds and stops dealing with them. Two tags show the kind of target at a glance: [SDGT] marks a specially designated global terrorist, and [SDNTK] a narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations.
Who is on the SDN list?
OFAC's SDN file of 28 October 2026 holds 19,484 entries. By the type field, 10,045 are entities, 7,529 individuals, 1,568 vessels and 342 aircraft. Fewer than four in ten are people. The entities include banks, government bodies, armed groups and companies, and OFAC's FAQ 56 adds that SDNs can be front companies or parastatal, meaning state owned, entities.
Digital currency addresses sit inside entries as identifiers: 109 entries list 1,075 addresses between them, each named with its currency.
What do the program tags in brackets mean?
Every entry ends with one or more program tags in brackets, which OFAC says "indicate the sanctions program pursuant to which the person has been blocked, designated, or identified". The Russia program under Executive Order 14024 is the largest. Its tag sits on 6,346 entries, about a third of the list. [SDGT] follows on 3,360, then [IFSR] (Iranian financial sanctions) on 1,620, [SDNTK] on 1,363 and [NPWMD] (weapons of mass destruction proliferators) on 1,205. Of the 19,484 entries, 3,029 carry two or more tags, and each tag names a program with its own regulations, so read them all.
How do you read an SDN entry and clear a possible match?
Here is the Zigama entry as OFAC published it, with the website left out:
ZIGAMA CREDIT AND SAVINGS SOCIETY (a.k.a. ZIGAMA CREDIT AND SAVINGS BANK; a.k.a. "ZIGAMA CSS"), KG 178 Street 3, P.O. Box 4772, Kigali, Rwanda; Organization Established Date 1997; alt. Organization Established Date 19 Apr 2010; Target Type Financial Institution; Business Registration Number RCA/546/2010 (Rwanda) [DRCONGO].
The legal name comes first, then the aliases: a.k.a. for "also known as", f.k.a. for a former name. "ZIGAMA CSS" sits in quotation marks because OFAC classes it as a weak alias, a broad or generic name that can throw up many false hits; the list holds 4,422 of them. Under its weak alias guidance, OFAC does not expect firms to screen on them; it expects them to be used "to help determine whether a 'hit' arising from other information is accurate". Address, identifiers and the program tag follow.
To clear a possible match, FAQ 5 tells you to compare every detail in the listing with what you hold. A shared name with a different date of birth, ID number or nationality points to a false positive. If name and date of birth agree for a person, or name and location for a company, and nothing you hold rules the match out, OFAC's next steps are to check for a license or exemption, then block or reject.
Table 1. Reading an SDN entry, field by field
| Field | What OFAC records there | How it settles a possible match |
|---|---|---|
| Name and program tag | The listed name, then one or more tags in brackets | A name alone settles nothing; the tag names the program |
| Strong aliases (a.k.a., f.k.a.) | Other names and former names the target uses or used | Screen them exactly like the main name |
| Weak aliases | Nicknames and short or generic names, in quotation marks | Support a hit found on other data |
| Address | Street, city and country; often several per target | Same country narrows the hit; an address alone may not confirm it |
| Identifiers for people | Date and place of birth, nationality, passport, national ID, gender | A different date of birth or ID number points to a namesake |
| Identifiers for companies, ships and wallets | Registration and tax numbers, founding dates, IMO and MMSI numbers, digital currency addresses | A matching number is strong evidence of a true match |
| Linked To and program notes | The target it is tied to, secondary sanctions risk and other notes | Shows why it is listed and which related names to screen |
What does "blocked" mean for a US person?
Blocking is a freeze. Under FAQ 9, title to the property stays with the blocked person, but nobody may transfer, withdraw or otherwise deal in it without OFAC's authorization.
A bank places blocked funds in a segregated account that earns interest at a commercially reasonable rate (FAQs 32 and 33). It reports them through the OFAC Reporting System within 10 business days, with supporting documents such as the payment instruction or invoice (FAQ 49). US persons holding blocked property on 30 June file an annual report by 30 September (FAQ 50).
The duty starts with an instruction. In OFAC's own example (FAQ 53), a customer who asks "Can I send money to Cuba?" can simply get an answer. Picture instead a customer of a US bank who instructs a $12,000 wire to Zigama (illustrative): the bank books the funds into a blocked account and files the report.
Which names are blocked without appearing on the list?
OFAC's FAQ 91 says some sanctions block whole categories of persons: most Cuban nationals, blocked foreign governments, and any entity that one or more blocked persons own 50 percent or more of, alone or together, directly or through other companies. That last test is OFAC's 50 percent rule, so a company check has to cover the owners as well as the name.
Does the SDN list apply to firms outside the US?
The duty to block sits with US persons, a group that FAQ 11 draws by citizenship, permanent residence, presence in the United States and place of incorporation, foreign branches included. Firms outside that group still meet the list in four ways.
- A US bank in the payment chain. A US bank acting as correspondent bank for a dollar transfer must block the funds once they reach it.
- Causing a violation. Non US persons may not cause or conspire to cause a US person to violate sanctions, or act to evade them (FAQ 11).
- Foreign subsidiaries. In some programs, such as Iran and North Korea, foreign subsidiaries owned or controlled by US persons must comply (FAQ 11). The North Korea entries added on 28 October 2026 carry a line citing section 510.214 for persons owned or controlled by US financial institutions.
- Secondary sanctions. 10,932 entries, more than half the list, carry a "Secondary sanctions risk" line that cites the provision behind that risk. Where it cites section 11 of Executive Order 14024, a foreign bank that conducts a significant transaction for a person blocked under that order can lose its US correspondent accounts or be blocked (FAQ 1149, FAQ 1148), in any currency (FAQ 1152).
How is the SDN list different from OFAC's other lists?
Table 2. OFAC's other lists, with OFAC's last updated dates (read 1 November 2026)
| List | What it does | Last updated |
|---|---|---|
| Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) List | Names persons in sectors of the Russian economy; directives set what is prohibited | 14 September 2026 |
| Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE) List | Foreign persons who violated or evaded US sanctions on Iran, or helped others deceive | Empty since 18 December 2025 |
| Palestinian Legislative Council list | Lets US banks reject transactions with certain council members | 27 July 2026 |
| CAPTA list | Foreign banks barred from, or restricted in, US correspondent and payable through accounts | 6 April 2022 |
| Menu based sanctions list | Sanctions short of full blocking, set out record by record | 19 October 2026 |
| Chinese military companies list | Limits on securities investments in listed companies | 16 December 2021 |
All six sit in OFAC's Consolidated Sanctions List files, apart from the SDN List (other OFAC sanctions lists). The difference that matters is blocking: US persons need not block the property of FSE and SSI targets unless they are also SDNs, though other prohibitions apply (FAQ 56). Sanctions List Search covers both sets, and its List column shows where a hit comes from (FAQ 369).
How do you search the SDN list?
Three routes reach the list.
- Sanctions List Search, for one name. OFAC's search page is free. Only the name field uses fuzzy logic, scored with a string similarity algorithm and the Soundex phonetic algorithm; the ID field, which also takes digital currency addresses, matches characters exactly, so try an ID with and without punctuation (FAQs 249 and 253). Removed names do not appear (FAQ 467).
- The data files, for systems. The Sanctions List Service offers the SDN List as downloads, custom datasets and an archive of changes. FAQ 287 points automated systems to these files, XML and CSV among them, and keeps the search page for individual users.
- A free check across four lists. complead, formerly Sanction Scanner, runs a free Sanctions Check that looks up a person, company or vessel name on the SDN List and on the UK, EU and UN Security Council lists together. Results appear on screen; a PDF with the details of each match follows by email. Of OFAC's lists it covers the SDN List only.
How often is the SDN list updated, and how is a name removed?
In October 2026 alone, OFAC's Recent Actions page filed entries under sanctions list updates on 11 separate days. On 14 October it removed one individual listed under the Venezuela program. On 26 October it amended its blocking and reporting FAQs, and on 28 October it added the 13 names that included Zigama. OFAC keeps no timetable: names are added or removed "as necessary and appropriate" (FAQ 20).
At that pace a customer cleared on a Monday can be listed by the Thursday, which is why ongoing monitoring rescreens customers each time the list changes.
Removal runs through a petition under 31 CFR 501.807, arguing that the basis for the listing was insufficient or that the circumstances behind it no longer apply. Someone only mistaken for a listed person contacts OFAC's Compliance Hotline instead (FAQ 897).
The SDN List is the US part of a name check. The UK, EU and UN keep lists of their own, and a name cleared against the SDN List can still sit on one of them.
How this page was checked. Every count here was tallied on 1 November 2026 from OFAC's own SDN files of 28 October 2026 (sdn.csv, alt.csv and sdn.xml). Each OFAC page and FAQ cited was read that day, the 26 October amendments included.
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