The Best Transaction Screening Software Solutions of 2025

Real-time transaction screening is non-negotiable in today’s dynamic payments landscape. With instant payment rails like FedNow, RTP, and ISO 20022 reshaping expectations, organizations need fast and accurate screening solutions to prevent high-risk transactions without slowing operations. Leading vendors have risen to meet this need with speed, flexibility, and innovation. Here are the top 10 transaction screening software vendors, including their features and strengths. 

What makes the best transaction screening software solution? 

Before diving into the top vendors, it’s worth exploring what differentiates the best transaction screening software from the rest. In addition to meeting compliance and regulatory requirements, the right solution should transform screening from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage. 

Six Steps to an Effective AML Transaction (aka Payment) Screening Process

A great system should deliver: 

• Real-time performance at scale: Because payments now clear in milliseconds, screening engines must match that speed across multiple rails and message types like FedNow, RTP, SEPA, ACH, SWIFT, and other emerging platforms. 

• Accuracy and reduced false positives: High-quality matching logic, fuzzy matching, and configurable risk thresholds are essential to avoid overwhelming compliance teams while still capturing genuine risks. 

• Fast rail onboarding and integration: Firms must be able to onboard new rails and integrate seamlessly with payment gateways, core banking systems, and ISO 20022 messaging frameworks. 

• Cross-border, multi-jurisdictional: Some systems fail to manage multiple jurisdictions and keep pace with regulatory developments. The right system can ensure you follow country-specific AML frameworks that mandate transaction-level screening against sanctions lists, embargoes, and internal risk rules. 

• Comprehensive, agnostic list coverage: From OFAC and EU sanctions to internal blocklists, PEP databases, dual-use goods, high-risk countries, and adverse media sources, a robust system ensures accessible and accurate data by maintaining and monitoring lists for updates. 

• Risk-based configuration: The ability to adjust rules and thresholds by customer, geography, payment type, or channel allows firms to align screening with their unique risk profile. 

• Conditional screening: Applying conditional screening checks against transaction attributes like thresholds, corridors, customer risk ratings, product types, and other elements can offer deeper due diligence based on internal risk controls. 

• Auditability and reporting: Clear audit trails, case management, and regulator-ready reporting are non-negotiable in today’s compliance climate. 

• Innovation roadmap: Vendors investing in technologies that bolster explainability and future-ready capabilities such as crypto or CBDC transaction screening will help firms stay compliant and competitive. 

With these features in mind, let’s take a look at the leading transaction screening software solutions shaping the market in 2025. 

The leading transaction screening software vendors for payments are:

1. FinScan, an Innovative Systems solution  

FinScan sets the standard with real-time, ISO 20022-ready payment screening across domestic and cross-border rails like SWIFT, SEPA, CIPS, FedNow, ACH, RTP, Fedwire, and more. Its FinScan Payments solution supports pre, mid, or post-process screening and extracts key data (names, BICs, account info, free-text) for lightning-fast response times per transaction—up to 10 times faster than other solutions on average.  

Recent accolades include the 2025 Datos Insights AML Impact Award for Best Sanction/Watchlist Screening Innovation, which highlighted FinScan Payments’ ability to screen against layered internal and external watchlists in high-volume environments as a key differentiator. The solution also offers risk-based configurations to reduce false positives, intuitive alert workflows, and flexible integrations, which are all crucial in today’s complex, instant-payments world. 

“In a rapidly evolving landscape driven by open banking, instant payments, and multi-rail infrastructures, FinScan Payments’ appreciation of the nuanced compliance and risk management requirements of modern payment ecosystems can transform compliance operations while supporting business growth,” said Chuck Subrt, Research Director, Fraud & AML Practice, Datos Insights. 

2. ComplyAdvantage 

A leading RegTech innovator from the UK, ComplyAdvantage combines AI, machine learning, and NLP for transaction and payment screening, as well as sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media checks in real time.  

3. ThetaRay 

Israel-based ThetaRay delivers AI-powered AML transaction monitoring and sanctions screening with advanced analytics, capable of uncovering “unknown unknowns” through proprietary mathematical algorithms. 

4. Facctum 

A young London-based RegTech, Facctum provides real-time payment screening, AML, sanctions, and customer due-diligence solutions. Since its founding in 2021, it has expanded globally and introduced open-access screening tools and real-time engines. 

5. Dow Jones Risk & Compliance 

Known for its comprehensive global sanctions data, Dow Jones offers real-time watchlist and sanctions screening with customizable risk scoring and monitoring, grounded in its deep data capabilities. 

6. Fenergo 

Primarily known for client lifecycle management and KYC, Dublin-based Fenergo includes embedded AML workflows. While not strictly a screening vendor, it’s widely used in compliance-heavy sectors to manage onboarding, risk, and regulatory workflows end-to-end. 

7. 3i Infotech 

Based in India, 3i Infotech offers a variety of business solutions including a rules-based, risk-aware transaction monitoring platform (Amlock), which helps companies reduce false positives using predictive analytics and intelligent alerting. It’s especially effective where efficient, focused compliance action is critical.  

8. Sanction Scanner 

Founded in 2019, Sanction Scanner is a specialist AML compliance firm offering name screening, adverse media checks, transaction screening, and AML monitoring. Its focus on AML workflows makes it a strong choice for efficient, all-in-one screening. 

9. Flagright 

Founded in 2022, Flagright is an AI-native platform offering real-time transaction monitoring and AML compliance. It combines no-code rule builders, dynamic risk scoring, entity-to-transaction linking, and case management for streamlined operations and fewer false positives.  

10. Sanctions.io 

Founded in 2020, Sanctions.io is a robust sanctions screening provider that offers real-time checks, customizable risk scoring, and compliance reporting, focusing on speed and compliance reliability. 

Explore FinScan Payments 

FinScan Payments Workflow

Among all the vendors in this list, FinScan Payments stands out as the solution built for today’s real-time, always-on payments ecosystem. Unlike generic AML tools, it’s engineered specifically for high-volume, complex payment environments where milliseconds and details matter. 

What sets it apart is the combination of real-time performance, ISO 20022 support, and the ability to screen transactions seamlessly without creating friction. Its risk-based alerting reduces noise while maintaining rigorous compliance standards, and its intuitive case management tools help teams investigate and resolve alerts quickly. Whether screening across SWIFT, SEPA, FedNow, RTP, Fedwire, and other rails, FinScan Payments delivers the right balance of speed, accuracy, and transparency that few competitors can match. 

For organizations looking to future-proof their payment operations, FinScan Payments gives financial services and FinTech organizations the speed, flexibility, and reliability they need to thrive in the next generation of payments. 

Discover why payment service providers (PSPs), FinTechs, and neobanks choose FinScan Payments for their real-time transaction screening and book a call to see it in action.