AML Scenario Gap Finder

Comprehensively sanctioned geographies

Which control stops dealings touching a comprehensively sanctioned country or region, including logins and addresses, not only names?

A scenario that places here

example

"Embargoed country: logins and payments from sanctioned regions"

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Channels it applies to

4 of the 20 in the dictionary

WIN ONL REM COR

International wires, online and mobile banking, remittance and money transfer and correspondent accounts: one sector each on the coverage chart, hatched where no scenario reaches it.

Obligations

4 regimes
RegimeObligation
Bank Secrecy Act and its regulations (31 CFR Chapter X)BSA BSA-AML-14 OFAC Sanctions Screening
FATF 40 RecommendationsFATF R.6 Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing
Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (Australia)AUSTRAC AMLCTF-SANCTIONS Sanctions Screening
OFAC framework for sanctions compliance commitmentsOFAC OFAC-SCP-3.3 Country and Comprehensive Sanctions Controls

The obligations, quoted

BSA BSA-AML-14 OFAC Sanctions Screening

Institutions shall screen customers, beneficial owners, counterparties and transactions against OFAC and other applicable sanctions lists in real time.

What an examiner asks to see: Screening engine config; List update cadence; Blocked/rejected transaction reports; OFAC annual reports
Where programmes usually fall short: List updates lag; No fuzzy matching tuning
Source: Bank Secrecy Act and its regulations (31 CFR Chapter X)
FATF R.6 Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing

Countries implement targeted financial sanctions regimes giving effect to the UN Security Council resolutions on terrorism and terrorist financing, freezing without delay the funds and other assets of persons and entities designated by or under the authority of the Security Council under Chapter VII (resolution 1267 and successors) or designated by the country under resolution 1373, and ensuring that no funds or assets are made available to or for their benefit; the Interpretive Note sets the designation authorities and procedures, the freezing obligations without delay and without prior notice, the prohibitions, the communication of designations, the reporting duties of institutions, the delisting and unfreezing procedures and access to frozen funds for basic expenses.

What an examiner asks to see: Legal basis for freezing without delay; Designation and delisting procedures and the competent authority; Communication mechanism for designations to institutions and their reporting of frozen assets
Where programmes usually fall short: Freezing dependent on a court order that takes days; No domestic designation mechanism under resolution 1373
Source: FATF 40 Recommendations
AUSTRAC AMLCTF-SANCTIONS Sanctions Screening

Screen customers and transactions against DFAT consolidated list and UN sanctions to comply with autonomous sanctions.

What an examiner asks to see: Sanctions screening against DFAT consolidated list
Where programmes usually fall short: No sanctions screening
Source: Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (Australia)
OFAC OFAC-SCP-3.3 Country and Comprehensive Sanctions Controls

The organization must implement geographic controls that prevent prohibited dealings with comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

What an examiner asks to see: Geographic block list configuration in onboarding and payment systems; IP-geolocation and shipping address controls for digital channels; Trade finance and letter of credit screening procedures; Evidence of denial of service for prohibited jurisdictions
Where programmes usually fall short: Reliance on customer-provided country data without independent verification; Web and mobile channels lacking IP-geolocation controls
Source: OFAC framework for sanctions compliance commitments

Other typologies in sanctions screening and interdiction