What does ofac mean

Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Treasury that is charged with enforcing economic and trade sanctions imposed by the U. Sanctions have been imposed on those involved in foreign aggression, terrorist activities, and narcotics sales, among other acts. President Harry Truman declared the event a national emergency and froze all Chinese and Korean assets subject to U.

OFAC enforces sanctions that were imposed by the U. According to this federal agency, those policies are aimed at foreign nations, terrorists, and narcotics traffickers who pose a threat to the national security or economy of the U. This includes entities that stockpile weapons of mass destruction. However, the president of the United States can use national emergency powers to perform certain actions such as freezing foreign assets that fall under U. These are often carried out in cooperation with allied nations.

The policies are intended to disrupt the economy and everyday life of the nations or groups violating international norms. It is a way to pressure a country to conform to acceptable standards of behavior short of actual armed conflict. For example, if a terrorist group is known to fund its activities through the sale of a commodity on the international market, sanctions might be introduced to disrupt this revenue source.

The U. List-based sanctions also known as smart sanctions , target particular persons, entities, and organizations, rather than an entire nation or regime. In the last five or so years, the U. There are five major country-based sanctions programs currently in effect, broadly regulating nearly all transactions with:. Burma Myanmar used to be on this list, but since the U. Each sanctions programs has its own regulatory scheme, but they generally prohibit:.

At times, the sanctions include prohibiting the vesting of property. This can make it problematic when a U. The oldest of these country-based sanctions programs, those involving Cuba, are also the broadest. They prohibit transactions with Cuban individuals and non-governmental organizations even in third countries. OFAC maintains several sanctions lists, each dealing with a group of targets.

OFAC sanctions are implemented in two categories:. All individuals, banks, financial services companies and other obligated institutions operating under United States jurisdiction must comply with OFAC sanctions. OFAC does issue certain sanctions exemptions which can be obtained via application to the Treasury Department. Performing an OFAC sanctions search manually can be administratively challenging and inefficient. Human error may also lead to inaccuracies and the risk of penalty fines.

In addition to countries, the U. In addition, the U. These secondary sanctions vary widely by sanctions program and activity. The U. The ITAR regulate the export, re-export, transfer, temporary import and brokering of defense articles, as well as technical data and defense services classified on the U.