OFAC Compliance Evaluation
What is OFAC?
"The Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. OFAC acts under Presidential wartime and national emergency powers, as well as authority granted by specific legislation, to impose controls on transactions and freeze foreign assets under US jurisdiction. Many of the sanctions are based on United Nations and other international mandates, are multilateral in scope, and involve close cooperation with allied governments." 1
Careful and diligent compliance with OFAC regulations was underscored by the events of September 11th. Now more than ever, American and International business organizations and institutions are evaluating methods to comply with OFAC compliance regulations.
What can I do to comply with OFAC regulations?
Many organizations are researching ways to automate this potentially cumbersome and resource intensive process. When selecting an OFAC compliance software solution, organizations should focus their search on OFAC software solutions that are the least expensive to implement and eliminate the risk of passing an OFAC violation. Other items that need to be addressed when evaluating an OFAC compliance software solution are:
- What is the logic behind the search engine from both a compliance and a technical standpoint?
- Can the OFAC software solution perform individual name checking and batch file processing quickly and accurately with low false positives?
- Does the OFAC compliance software solution include a feature used to reduce the volume of false matches found?
- Does the OFAC compliance software solution include a feature used to import "Deny Lists" custom to my business?
- What type of reporting and archival capabilities come with the OFAC software solution?
- How does the OFAC software vendor provide updates to OFAC and other government lists?
- What are the different implementation options for a given OFAC compliance software solution (e.g. DLL/COM, Online or Web based, Windows® standalone or client server, or UNIX based applications)?
Where can I find a software solution to assist with OFAC compliance?
Organizations in search of an OFAC compliance software solution should look no further than Bridger Systems. Bridger offers a full suite of compliance software solutions developed to meet the many challenges organizations and institutions face when implementing an OFAC policy and procedure program. Please visit our web site for a detailed description of Bridger's OFAC compliance software and USA PATRIOT Act compliance software solutions, or contact us at 1-(866) 858-7246.
Additional Information on:
1 U.S. Treasury Department http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/index.shtml |
