Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List definition

Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List

The principal United States sanctions list. Property of anyone on it is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.

also known as

SDN List, SDN

reviewed

2026-08-20

Cite this page

APA 7

Sanctions Evasion Reference. (2026, August 20). Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. https://sanctionsevasion.org/reference/glossary/sdn-list/

Chicago

Sanctions Evasion Reference. “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.” Last reviewed August 20, 2026. https://sanctionsevasion.org/reference/glossary/sdn-list/.

BibTeX

@misc{ser-reference-glossary-sdn-list,
  author = {{Sanctions Evasion Reference}},
  title  = {Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {Last reviewed 2026-08-20},
  url    = {https://sanctionsevasion.org/reference/glossary/sdn-list/}
}

The date is when this page was last reviewed, not when it was first published.

The SDN List is maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and published as XML, CSV and plain text several times a month. Each entry carries a unique identifier, the programme tags that explain why the party is listed, and a set of identity fields.

For anyone studying evasion, three features of the list matter. First, it is a list of names and identifiers, not of people: a designated person who forms a new company under a new name is not on it until the authority catches up. Second, its coverage extends automatically to entities owned fifty per cent or more by listed parties, whether or not those entities are themselves named. Third, since 2018 it has carried digital currency addresses as a structured identifier field, which is what makes blockchain screening against it possible.

Where this term is used

How is correspondent banking used to evade sanctions? — Using a chain of banks that each know only their own customer, so that a payment for a restricted party reaches a currency it could not access directly, without any bank in the chain seeing the whole transaction.
What is a front company? — A front company is a business that trades normally but exists largely to hide another party's involvement in its transactions. The real activity is the cover; the concealed party is the point.
How is cryptocurrency used to evade sanctions? — Settling obligations in virtual assets so that value moves without a correspondent bank, a payment message or a screening system in the path, and without any institution able to block it in transit.
What happens when sanctions-screening controls go untested? — A firm builds real geo-blocking or screening controls, then never independently tests whether they still work, so a bug, a disabled setting or a discontinued tool runs unnoticed for months or years.

Related terms

Designation — The formal act of adding a person, entity, vessel or aircraft to a sanctions list, which triggers the restrictions attached to that programme.
The 50 percent rule — OFAC guidance that any entity owned fifty per cent or more, directly or indirectly, by one or more blocked persons is itself blocked, whether or not it is named.
Blocking — Freezing property and interests in property of a designated person that come within a jurisdiction, so it cannot be transferred, paid, withdrawn or otherwise dealt in.
Screening — Automated comparison of names, identifiers and other transaction data against sanctions lists and internal watchlists, at onboarding and on each payment.

Where this term is used

Related terms

Sources