fraud agent's ofac batch screen timed out on sanctions api latency spike
Keeps fraud agent OFAC batch screening alive through sanctions API latency spikes: chunks batches, sets per call timeouts with partial result handling, and retries only the unscreened remainder. Use when batch screens die on a single slow call. Not for screening logic errors, where calls return fast with wrong results.
TL;DR
A batch screen that sends hundreds of names in one call, or processes them with no per call timeout, dies completely when the sanctions API slows down, leaving zero names screened instead of most names screened. Chunk the batch into small groups, give each call a firm timeout, and record results per name as they complete, so a timeout costs one chunk, not the batch. Retry only the missing names with backoff, and report the batch as partially complete with the unscreened list named, because silently treating unscreened as cleared is a compliance failure, not a performance choice.
fraud agent's ofac batch screen timed out on sanctions api latency spikeUse this when
- Batch screens time out during known vendor latency spikes.
- The agent restarts the whole batch after each failure.
- Nobody can say which names in a failed batch were actually screened.
Not for this skill when
- Single name screens time out too, at all hours. That is a vendor outage or network problem, not batch design.
- Results return quickly but matches look wrong. That is matching quality, covered by screening tuning.
Steps
- Instrument the batch: log per call latency and per name completion so the next spike shows exactly where time went. Verify: a batch report lists completed and missing names separately.
- Chunk the batch into small groups, for example 25 names, and persist each chunk results before starting the next. Verify: killing a run mid batch loses at most one chunk of work.
- Set a per call timeout sized from vendor normal latency, with one backoff retry per chunk, then mark that chunk pending rather than failed forever. Verify: a staged slow chunk ends as pending while later chunks complete.
- Add a completion gate: the batch may only report screened when every name has a result or a pending flag, and pending names enter a retry queue automatically. Verify: the summary count of screened plus pending always equals the batch size.
- Alert compliance operations when pending names age past your screening SLA, since unscreened payees may need payout holds. Verify: an aged pending name appears on the compliance alert.
Variant phrasings
ofac batch screening timeout agent
Batch timeout phrasing.
sanctions api slow agent batch incomplete
Partial completion phrasing.
agent screening batch died latency spike
Spike phrasing.
Compatibility: Any agent or job calling OFAC screening APIs or commercial screening platforms in batch. Chunk sizes and timeouts should be tuned to your vendor published latency and rate limits.
Why it happens
Latency spikes are tail events: most calls stay fast while a few hang. A design with one timeout for a whole batch converts a few hanging calls into total failure, and a design without per name bookkeeping converts total failure into total rework, which during a spike means the retry hits the same wall.
Edge cases / pitfalls
- Never let a timeout default to no match. In screening, unknown must stay unknown and visible.
- Vendor rate limits punish aggressive chunk parallelism. Keep concurrency inside the vendor limit or the fix creates 429 failures.
- Priority order matters: screen payout ready names first so a partial batch still covers the highest risk names.
Provenance
Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_RqyTsMfuATYCfgqZiwecNA