Indirect Exposure Named Top Sanctions Risk for 41% of Payments Professionals

Quick Summary

According to a Clear Junction poll, 41% of payments professionals identify indirect exposure as their primary sanctions risk challenge. This highlights the growing difficulty in tracking illicit activity across complex payment chains, particularly where traditional fiat settlement intersects with digital asset and blockchain activity.

How Does Indirect Exposure Impact Sanctions Risk Management?

Indirect exposure represents the most significant hurdle for compliance teams, as identified by 41% of industry experts. Unlike direct matches, indirect risks often hide within complex payment chains involving multiple intermediaries or digital asset wallets. Identifying these links requires sophisticated blockchain analytics and deep counterparty due diligence to ensure that funds are not touching sanctioned entities through secondary or tertiary connections.

• 41% cite indirect exposure as the top challenge.
• 33% struggle with wallet and transaction screening.
• 18% find customer due diligence the most taxing.

What Are the Hardest Parts of Sanctions Alert Response?

The sanctions risk challenge extends beyond detection into the operational reality of decision-making. For 36% of professionals, the most difficult task is deciding whether to pause or proceed with a transaction once an alert is triggered. This pressure is compounded by faster payment rails, where delays can impact legitimate customer experiences, yet proceeding risks severe regulatory penalties. Furthermore, 21% of respondents noted that obtaining counterparty information remains a major bottleneck in the escalation process.

How Are Firms Strengthening Their Compliance Frameworks?

To combat indirect exposure, firms are prioritizing transaction monitoring, with 29% of organizations planning to bolster this area. There is a clear shift toward integrating hybrid fiat infrastructure with advanced escalation workflows to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto. Compliance teams are also focusing on audit and evidence processes to ensure that every decision made under pressure is defensible to regulators.

• 29% of firms are prioritizing transaction monitoring upgrades.
• 22% are focusing on improving escalation workflows.
• 14% are investing in specialized blockchain analytics.

“Sanctions risk management is becoming increasingly operational. The poll results show that firms are looking beyond screening and paying close attention to how they assess indirect exposure, make decisions under time pressure and evidence those decisions clearly. A risk signal can quickly become a payment decision. Strong controls depend on how well compliance insight, transaction monitoring, payment operations and escalation processes work together.” said Olga Mackintosh, Chief Commercial Officer at Clear Junction.

FF NEWS TAKE:

This data confirms that the "low hanging fruit" of simple name-matching is no longer the frontline of compliance. As sanctions risk challenge shifts toward indirect exposure, the industry is moving toward a reality where crypto-native analytics are mandatory for fiat institutions. Clear Junction’s findings suggest that the real competitive advantage in fintech will soon be the ability to make high-speed, high-accuracy risk decisions without halting global payment flows.