Why do newly added sanctions entries sometimes not trigger a hit right away?

If you screen a user against an OFAC, SDN, EU, or UK sanctions list shortly after that list has been updated and don't see an expected hit, the most likely cause is a list propagation delay.

Plaid downloads and processes updated watchlists daily. When a government body (such as OFAC, the EU, or the UK FCDO) publishes changes to a sanctions list, there is a processing window before those changes are fully reflected in Monitor screenings. During this window, a screening against a newly added name may return no hit even though the entry now exists on the official list.

This is expected behavior and is not a bug in Monitor.

As a general rule, allow 24–48 hours after an official list update before expecting new entries to trigger hits in Monitor. In practice, many updates are available sooner, but the 24–48 hour window accounts for ingestion, validation, and propagation across Plaid's infrastructure.

📌 Note: US federal holidays can delay OFAC list processing. If an OFAC update falls on or immediately before a US holiday, allow additional time.

Follow these steps:

1. Wait the full 24–48 hours from the time the official list was published (not from when you first tested).
2. Re-run the screening for the user in question by calling /watchlist_screening/individual/create with their details.
3. Check that the name you are testing matches the entry on the official list exactly (including transliterations or alternate spellings).
4. Confirm that the relevant watchlist is enabled in your Monitor program configuration.
5. If you still do not see a hit after the propagation window, contact Plaid Support and include the screening ID(s) (scr_...) and the specific list entry you expected to match.

Enable Ongoing Monitoring for daily rescans

When setting up your Monitor program, enable Ongoing Monitoring so that Plaid automatically rescans your user base against updated watchlists each day. With Ongoing Monitoring enabled, a user newly added to a sanctions list will typically be flagged in the next daily rescan cycle (within 24 hours of Plaid ingesting the list update), without you needing to re-screen manually. This setting is highly recommended for any program that needs to meet continuous-screening regulatory expectations.