On November 5, 2018, the FFIEC released a joint statement to alert financial institutions to recent actions taken by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). These actions were taken under OFAC’s Cyber-Related Sanctions Program and have potential impact on financial institution’s operations, including the use of services of a sanctioned entity.
This statement comes in conjunction with renewed economic sanctions against the Iranian regime and warns of heightened OFAC risks due to the new sanctions. After providing a brief background of the Cyber-Related Sanctions Program, the joint statement discusses a number of related topics such as risks, risk mitigation, OFAC compliance program risk assessments, and operational risk management. The joint statement concludes with a list of additional resources that provide further clarification for applicable financial institutions.
The FFIEC press release and joint statement can be found here.