A money services business has to screen every sender, receiver and counterparty against the OFAC sanctions lists before the money moves, block and report any match to OFAC within 10 business days, and keep a dated record of each check for 10 years. OFAC rules apply to every U.S. person regardless of size, and liability does not depend on intent, so a check casher, remittance agent or currency exchanger carries the same duty as a bank. For a small MSB, sanctions screening that produces a record for every transaction usually costs $24 to $250 a month. A full AML suite with transaction monitoring is a separate and much larger purchase.
Below we compare the options an MSB owner, compliance officer or agent manager is likely to shortlist. Prices come from public vendor pages in October 2026 and change, so confirm them before you sign.
OFAC screening options compared for money services businesses
| Option | Entry price | What it screens | Lists | Record per check | Rescreening of saved customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OfacScanner Starter | $49 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly | 1,000 checks a month, 1 user | OFAC SDN and Consolidated | PDF certificate with list version, time and user | No, you run checks again by hand |
| OfacScanner Growth | $499 a month, or $249 a month billed yearly | 50,000 checks a month, 5 users, CSV upload | OFAC plus UN, EU, UK, Canada and Australia | PDF per check plus a case with the reviewer's decision | Yes, up to 50,000 saved records after every list update |
| OfacScanner Scale | $1,999 a month, or $999 a month billed yearly | REST API and webhooks for real time screening inside your app | Same as Growth | PDF per check through the API | Yes |
| OFACScreen | $49 a month (Starter), $149 (Professional), $349 (Business) | 1,000, 2,000 or 10,000 searches, 3 to 25 users | 14 lists on every plan | Free PDF records on paid plans | 10, 50 or 500 names checked daily |
| EasyOFAC | Free tier, then $14, $49 and $129 a month | 100 to 1,500 searches, monitored lists of 100 to 10,000 | Not stated on its site | Not stated | Yes, monitored names |
| Full AML platforms (Alessa, ComplyAdvantage and similar) | Quote only | Customers, transactions, PEPs, adverse media | Hundreds to thousands of lists | Case records in the platform | Yes |
| Treasury Sanctions List Search | No charge | One name at a time | OFAC lists | None, you capture a screenshot yourself | No |
The fit depends on what your regulator and your bank partner expect. If you also have to monitor transactions and file suspicious activity reports, you need an AML platform and a quote. If the gap in your program is proof that every customer was checked against OFAC, a sanctions-only plan covers it for a fraction of the price. Our page on AML sanctions screening explains where the line sits.
What OFAC expects from a money services business
OFAC publishes guidance written for money services businesses, and the points that matter in an exam are consistent. First, a written sanctions compliance program sized to your risk, with a named person responsible. Second, screening of the parties to each transaction, not only the account holder, because a remittance has a sender, a receiver and often an agent or payout location. Third, a decision and a reason for every hit, written down. Fourth, records you can produce on request. Cross border transfers, foreign exchange and digital wallets sit at the high risk end, and most MSBs that were penalized had no process to screen at all.
Pay attention to the OFAC 50 percent rule if you serve business customers. A company owned 50 percent or more by listed people is blocked even when its own name is not on the list. Name screening alone does not find that, so ask owners for the beneficial owners and screen those names too.
Who and when to screen
- The sender and the receiver on every transfer, before the transaction is released.
- Walk in customers who cash checks, buy money orders or exchange currency above your internal threshold.
- Agents and sub agents when you onboard them, and again after each list update.
- Business customers and their owners at onboarding.
- Your whole customer file after every OFAC list change, because a person can be listed after you onboarded them.
The last item is where manual work breaks down. A customer file of a few thousand names cannot be rechecked by hand every time OFAC adds entries, and a one-time check at onboarding leaves the file stale within weeks. That is the main reason MSBs move from the Treasury search to a paid plan with ongoing sanctions monitoring.
What screening costs by MSB size
| MSB profile | Typical need | Plan | Yearly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single location check casher or currency exchanger, a few hundred customers a month | OFAC check at the counter with a PDF in the file | OfacScanner Starter | $288 |
| Regional remittance or payment company with a customer file up to 50,000 | Whole file uploaded, rechecked after each update, cases with reviewer notes | OfacScanner Growth | $2,988 |
| App based transfers screened before payout through an API | REST API and webhooks inside the payment flow | OfacScanner Scale | $11,988 |
| Licensed in many states with transaction monitoring and SAR case work | A full AML platform | Vendor quote | Usually five figures or more |
Prices for every plan are on our pricing page. Every plan is sold month to month or yearly at about half the monthly rate, with no setup fee.
How to handle an OFAC hit at an MSB
Most hits are false positives from common names or partial matches. Compare the identifiers you collected, such as date of birth, address, ID number and nationality, with the listed entry. If they clearly differ, release the transaction and write down why. If they match, or you cannot rule the entry out, hold the transaction, confirm against the official Treasury search and escalate to your compliance officer or counsel. Blocked property is reported to OFAC within 10 business days. Never tell the customer the transaction was blocked because of a sanctions match before you have decided how to proceed.
What to ask before you buy OFAC software for an MSB
- Does each check save a dated record with the list version that I can hand to an examiner or a bank partner?
- Can I upload the whole customer file as a CSV and have it rechecked after every OFAC update?
- Is there an API, so transfers are screened inside the app before payout?
- How many staff logins are included, and can each decision be traced to a person?
- Which lists come with the plan besides OFAC, for corridors to the UK, EU or Canada?
- Is there a monthly option, or a multi year contract?
Our pick for money services businesses
A single location MSB that screens at the counter should start with Starter and keep the PDF of every check in the customer file. A payment or remittance company with a growing customer base is better off on Growth, which screens the file in one upload and alerts only on new possible matches. Once transfers are initiated in an app, Scale lets you screen through the API before payout. Daily settlement with your bank is another place paperwork piles up, and good bank reconciliation software keeps that side clean while screening covers the compliance side.
Try a real name in the OFAC search console at the top of this page, open the PDF it produces, and check whether it would satisfy your examiner. Screening results are a lead, not a legal decision. Confirm likely matches against the official Treasury list and involve your compliance officer or counsel before you block, reject or report anything.