The Basics
The U.S. government expects that a sanctions risk assessment helps your organization understand its inherent risks to inform risk-based decisions and controls. What that means is your organization should conduct an assessment of specific clients, products, services, and geographic locations to identify these risks.
Types of Risks
OFAC has identified the types of risks that a sanctions risk assessment will address and includes clients and customers, products, services, supply chain, intermediaries, counter-parties, transactions, and geographic locations, depending on the nature of the organization.
OFAC Risk Assessment Expectations
OFAC provides critical guidance on what a sanctions risk assessment should address as part of a Sanctions Compliance Program.
For more information, read our analysis, "Expectations for an OFAC Sanctions Risk Assessment."
Key Point of Risk: M&A
OFAC also identified Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) as a key point of vulnerability during a business relationship that present challenges to OFAC sanctions.
For more information, please read our analysis, "Key Points of Sanctions Risk: Mergers and Acquisitions."
Key Point of Risk: Onboarding
According to OFAC, the "initiation of the customer relationship" (On-Boarding) presents another key point of vulnerability during a business relationship that presents challenges to OFAC sanctions.
For more information about On-Boarding, please read our analysis, "Key Points of Sanctions Risk: On-Boarding"