OFAC Basics: My Funds are Blocked, Now What?

[Music] thank you for tuning into this video by the office of foreign assets control or ofac you may be watching this because a bank or financial institution told you that your funds or even your account was blocked by ofac in this video we will walk through what it means when funds are frozen in connection with ofac sanctions which is what we refer to as blocked and what you can do if your funds have been blocked first let's add some context financial institutions play an important role in safeguarding the US Financial system by ensuring the transactions they process do not violate OPAC sanctions as part of this your bank may be screening your transactions which may include screening your name and the names of every party involved in your transaction if a financial institution has reason to believe that it could be in possession or control of funds involving a person company or country fact has sanctioned it may stop or hold the transaction in order to investigate further ultimately and this is very important if a US financial institution believes a transaction involves the interest of a person sanctioned by one of ofac's programs that require asset blocking the bank must block your funds and if they have that's probably why you're here watching this video now let's be clear ofac does not stop seize freeze or hold the actual funds or property the financial institution that blocked the transaction does not transfer blocked funds to ofac so let's illustrate all of this with the hypothetical and pretend that you tried to send someone money but your bank is now holding on to your funds while they investigate at this point your bank May reach out to you to ask for some more information and we recommend you provide the bank with that additional information such as a passport or birth certificate the goal here is for you to provide the bank with the information they might need to determine whether your activity involves a person or place ofac has sanctioned when the bank reaches out to you for information even if they mention ofac sanctions this is not a request from ofac this is the financial institution asking you for more information if you are seeking to understand why your transaction has been stopped only the financial institution can provide that information to you so if this happens and you have questions we recommend you contact the compliance Department of the bank if after talking to them and providing the relevant information the bank still has questions about sanctions we recommend you encourage the bank to contact ofac's compliance hotline and we can provide them guidance to help resolve their questions so that's how you might deal with a bank that's still in the investigation phase but now let's say the bank already finished its investigations and blocked your funds what now a bank can only release blocked funds after receiving an authorization from ofac this authorization typically comes in the form of a license issued by our Licensing Division you can apply online for a license for the release of blocked funds using the licensing page on oax website applications are free to submit and anyone can submit one you do not need to be a lawyer or have a lawyer to submit the application once you're on the application page click on submit an application then select release of blocked funds as your application type and complete the rest of the form to complete your application you'll need to include the OA sanctions program under which the funds were blocked you may need to reach out to your financial institution for this information additionally it's a good idea to confirm with the bank that they already submitted their report to ofac before you apply for a license there's additional guidance on the application process available on our website after you received your application we will review your case and when the review is complete we'll tell you if the license application was granted or denied or if we need more information Etc let's say we granted your license what happens now well at that point you should work with your bank to get your funds released the financial institution that blocked your funds will also receive from ofac a copy of the license to release the funds but you may want to send the bank a copy of the license just in case and if they have any questions about the license you should encourage the bank to reach out to our Licensing Division for more information but what if your transaction was not blocked but simply rejected due to sanctions instead some of back sanctions prohibit activity but don't require blocking like most commercial transactions involving the country of Iran if you have a transaction like that your bank would likely refuse to process the transaction and reject it instead of blocking it if this happens to you you should speak with someone at your bank to determine why the transaction was rejected other times a financial institution May refuse to process a transaction for other reasons that don't involve sanctions such as anti-money laundering requirements or because of their own internal policies and procedures ultimately if your transaction gets rejected by your financial institution you should reach first out to them to figure out why that happened and to see if there is anything you could do to resolve the situation if you'd like to learn more about ofac's blocking requirements or a license application process you can visit our website at ofac treasury.gov and visit the FAQ section on our page thanks for watching