Challenges and Opportunities in Cryptocurrency Sanctions Compliance and How Blockchain Analysis Can Help

Having a mature sanctions compliance program in place is a necessary, but never perfect, approach to protecting your institution. Sanctions compliance: The fundamentalsThere once was a time where the responsibility of a sanctions compliance officer was to simply check names in a transaction or onboarding document against a printed out piece of paper containing the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals List (better known as the OFAC SDN List). If intermediaries exist between your exchange and the sanctioned entity, a sanctions compliance team must assess the relationship between intermediaries. Clear reporting and actionable remedial steps is what truly drives successful sanctions compliance programs, as well as the potential opportunity for receiving a more favorable outcome from OFAC. The crypto advantage: Looking forwardWhile crypto certainly has a unique set of challenges in sanctions compliance, there are also endless opportunities in automation and efficiency.