Respond to compliance requests
Last updated: July 9, 2025
A compliance request is a formal communication that Checkout.com sends you when an alert is raised during our payment screening process. This is a request for additional information so we can verify the payment.
We screen all payments to ensure they comply with regulations. For example, checking global sanctions lists, or performing anti-money laundering (AML) checks.
Information
For any questions or additional support with the screening process, contact your account manager or request support.
Checkout.com performs an automated review of each payment, using the payment data provided in your payment request, historical data, and algorithms. The more data you provide in payment requests, the higher the rate of automated approvals.
If our system cannot approve the payment automatically, an alert is raised and our Operations Team reviews it within 24 hours. They can manually approve the payment or, if we need more information, email you a compliance request.
There are two types of compliance requests:
- Sanctions requests
- Business activity requests
Screening payments against global sanctions lists helps ensure compliance by preventing payments involving sanctioned entities. These lists contain individuals, organizations, countries, and regions that are restricted due to activities such as terrorism or human-rights violations.
We send this type of request if there is a potential sanctions match for a payment, or if you provided insufficient information in your payment request.
You must respond within 11 calendar days from when we sent the request.
Note
If you do not provide all the required information or do not respond within the time limit, the request expires and we may decline the payment.
The resolution process may continue after the 11 day time limit if there is ongoing communication between you and the Operations Team to obtain all the required information.
You can respond to sanctions requests securely in the Dashboard, within 11 calendar days from when we sent the request.
You must have the Compliance Operator user role or a custom role with the following permissions:
Manage compliance requestsView compliance requests
- Sign in to the Dashboard.
- Go to Payments > Processing > Compliance requests.
The requests that require a response are displayed. - Select a request to view the details.
- In the Respond to compliance request page that opens, enter the required information.
You can also see the details of the payment the request was created for. - Select Submit.
It may take up to 24 hours for our Operations Team to make a decision on the payment based on your response.
There are two types of notifications you can opt in for:
- New compliance request created – You receive an email notification when a new compliance request is created.
- Daily compliance request summary – You receive a daily email summary with the number of compliance requests that require a response and those that expire in less than 24 hours. This notification is useful if you receive multiple compliance requests a day.
To receive notifications for new sanctions requests to your email address, you must have a user role with the following permissions:
Create, edit and delete workflow notificationsView the list of workflow notifications permissions
- Sign in to the Dashboard.
- Select the Settings menu in the top navigation bar, and then select Settings.
- Under Personal settings, select Notifications, and then open the Compliance requests tab.
- Select the notifications you want to receive.
To receive notifications for new sanctions requests to one or more group/team email addresses, you must have the Admin user role.
- Sign in to the Dashboard.
- Select the Settings menu in the top navigation bar, and then select Settings.
- Under Business settings, select Business contacts.
The compliance request recipients are displayed. - Select Edit to provide the group/team email addresses.
- In the pop-up window that opens, enter the email addresses.
- Select Confirm.
Business activity requests help us meet regulatory obligations with our banking and regulatory partners. We send them for payments in high-risk industries or regions, or for unusual payment volumes.
We may request customer ID details or more payment data, such as the source of funds, or the purpose of the payment. This type of request does not impact payment processing.
We email you the request, and you must respond within 10 calendar days from when we sent the request.
To minimize compliance requests and avoid payment processing delays, ensure you provide comprehensive information about the sender and recipient in your payment requests.
For more information, see Reduce compliance request volumes.