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Vague OFAC Prohibition Complicates Bank Compliance, Say Analysts
By Matt Squire
printFinancial institutions are struggling to determine how to comply with a federal ban on aiding companies and individuals that do business with sanctioned countries, say compliance experts. Under sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), U.S. companies and their foreign subsidiaries are prohibited from "facilitating" or aiding other entities that do business with blacklisted countries. OFAC maintains 13 sanctions programs targeting countries including Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo While OFAC has made it clear which countries it sanctions, the prohibition on dealing with...
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