AML & Compliance

What is OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control)?

A division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury responsible for administering and enforcing economic sanctions programs against targeted foreign countries, regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. Financial institutions are required to screen all transactions and customer relationships against OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list and other sanctions lists.

How it works

Example: A bank’s real-time sanctions screening system blocks an outgoing wire transfer when the beneficiary’s name matches an entity on OFAC’s SDN list, and the compliance team files a blocking report with OFAC within the required 10-day window.