[ad_1]
BIBA members are reminded about the creation of the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) within HM Treasury which has been created to help UK businesses comply with financial sanctions.
It is intended that OFSI will be a centre of excellence for financial sanctions, raising awareness and providing clear guidance to promote compliance with financial sanctions, providing a professional service to the public and industry, and working closely with other parts of government to ensure that sanctions breaches are rapidly detected and effectively addressed.
The new organisation will continue and build on the work carried out by the Treasury’s Financial Sanctions team and BIBA members may need to update their web and email links in these areas as a result to ensure that they continue to receive up-to-date information.
Details of UK Financial Sanctions, including the consolidated list of financial sanctions targets, can now be found on the OFSI website.
Enquiries relating to asset freezing or other financial sanctions should be submitted to the OFSI in future. All enquiries, licence applications, licence reports, reports of frozen assets, and breach forms should be sent to ofsi@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk.
HM Treasury has also changed the email address it uses to send out email alerts about uupdates to the financial sanctions regime in the UK. All future notifications from OFSI will be sent from the following address hmt.ofsi@public.govdelivery.com and members may need to review their computer’s/company spam filters to ensure that they continue to receive the relevant email alerts.
Members who are not already signed up to the email alert system can do so via this form.
Members needing to contact OFSI in writing can do so at:
Office of Financial Sanction Implementation
HM Treasury
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ
Examples of good and poor practice in relation to developing and maintaining financial crime systems and controls including compliance with financial sanctions can also be found in the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Crime guide.
The government is currently legislating to ensure that suitable remedies are available to address breaches of financial sanctions. Provisions in the Policing and Crime Bill 2015-16 include a range of new administrative penalties, including monetary penalties, and an increase in the maximum custodial sentence for breaching financial sanctions to seven years on conviction on indictment (or six months imprisonment on summary conviction).
The Bill also provides for the swifter implementation of UN financial sanctions.
Screening your client data with SanctionsSearch.com
BIBA members should also be aware that they have access to SanctionsSearch.com as part of their membership benefits package. SanctionsSearch.com enables firms to quickly and cost effectively screen client data against the HM Treasury consolidated list of financial sanctions targets. Members can screen a client in under 30 seconds using the facility which provides a robust audit trail and automatically re-screens data after each and every sanctions update ensuring complete compliance. For more information please contact: Chris Clare, Professional Office Ltd. Tel: 0151 633 2876 or email: info@sanctionssearch.com.
BIBA members’ compliance and regulation queries should be directed to: compliance@biba.org.uk
The post Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation creation – revise your web and email links now appeared first on British Insurance Brokers' Association.
[ad_2]
Source link
