Usage Scope

Learn about key use cases and requirements for using Payment Screening.

Global coverage

Socure’s Payment Screening solution is available globally via RiskOS™, enabling real-time screening of payment participants (senders, beneficiaries, and intermediaries) against global sanctions lists, PEP (Politically Exposed Person) data, and Adverse Media.


Industries it fits

  • Payment Service Providers: Screen transactions across payment rails to meet sanctions and AML compliance requirements.
  • Banking and Financial Services: Screen transactions across payment rails to meet sanctions and AML compliance requirements.
  • Fintech & Crypto: Screen wallet addresses, on-ramp/off-ramp flows, and counterparties for sanctions exposure.
  • Marketplaces & Gig platforms: Ensure payouts are not sent to sanctioned individuals or entities.
  • E-Commerce & Payments: Prevent processing payments involving sanctioned parties.
  • Insurance: Screen claims disbursements and premium payments.
  • Government: Protect disbursement programs and payment systems from sanctions violations.

Common use cases

  • Cross-Border Payments – Evaluate sender, beneficiary, intermediary banks, and jurisdictions in real time to prevent funds from reaching sanctioned parties or regions.
  • Domestic Wire Screening – Screen originator, beneficiary, and financial institutions involved in domestic transfers for sanctions exposure.
  • Account Funding & Withdrawal – Assess bank accounts and crypto addresses at top-up, account verification, and withdrawal to prevent indirect exposure to sanctioned entities.
  • On-Ramp / Off-Ramp (Fiat ↔ Crypto) – Screen individuals, businesses, and blockchain addresses to ensure funds are not being converted for or by sanctioned parties.
  • [Coming Soon] Free Text & Narrative Screening – Parse payment instructions (e.g., “for further credit to”) to identify hidden parties, high-risk terms, or sanctions evasion patterns.

Performance considerations

  • Fast decisions: Sub-200ms response times for real-time sanctions screening.
  • Single API call: Screen sender, beneficiary, and intermediaries in one request to reduce latency and complexity.
  • Always available: Built for high availability in critical payment flows.
  • Built for scale: Supports high-volume transaction environments across payment rails.

Boundary conditions

  • Input requirements: Requires transaction data including sender, beneficiary, intermediaries, and attributes such as name, account details, IBAN, BIC/SWIFT, crypto address, and free text.
  • Scope limitation: Payment Screening evaluates transactions in real time and does not replace Transaction Monitoring (which analyzes behavior over time).
  • Configuration: Requires watchlist policy configuration (e.g., sanctions, PEP), policy setup
  • Regulatory obligation: Transactions involving sanctioned parties must be blocked or rejected and reported per applicable regulations.