What is OFAC Compliance?

What is OFAC Compliance?

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the US Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities …

What are the OFAC regulations?

In general, the regulations that OFAC administers require banks to do the following:

• Block accounts and other property of specified countries, entities, and individuals.
• Prohibit or reject unlicensed trade and financial transactions with specified countries, entities, and individuals.

What are the 5 components of OFAC?

The framework strongly encourages organizations to develop, implement and routinely update a Sanctions Compliance Program that includes five (5) essential components: management commitment, risk assessment, internal controls, testing and auditing and training.

How do you become OFAC compliant?

What is an OFAC Compliance Program?

1. Engage in many transactions or a general course of business that has a nexus to sanctions programs.
2. Engage in business in a region with a heightened risk of sanctions violations.
3. Engage in international business at a large volume.

Why is OFAC important?

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a division of the U.S Department of the Treasury that supports U.S foreign policy by enforcing sanctions against countries and groups.

What are the basic elements of an OFAC compliance program?

According to the new OFAC guidance, an institution’s sanctions compliance program, or “SCP,” is strongly encouraged to employ a risk-based approach that is predicated on “at least five essential components of compliance: (1) senior management commitment, (2) risk assessment, (3) internal controls, (4) testing, and (5) …

Why is OFAC check required?

The OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) check can help you confirm if a candidate is a potential threat to national security and if they are allowed to do business in the United States.

How do you perform an OFAC check?

You can look up a person’s or company’s name in an OFAC search on the U.S. Treasury’s website. All documents are public and easy to access. They are updated when necessary and there are records of post information. There will be a check on the person’s or company’s name against the Specially Designated National list.

What are the duties of an OFAC officer?

The OFAC Officer is responsible for developing, implementing and administering all aspects of the Bank’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Compliance Program by performing various quality control reviews and monitoring in the area of OFAC compliance and sanctions to avoid any possible violations for the Bank.

What is OFAC SDN list?

As part of its enforcement efforts, OFAC publishes a list of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries. Collectively, such individuals and companies are called “Specially Designated Nationals” or “SDNs.”