One of my countless compliance discussion groups turned up a potential gem. What if I told you that there is a a website that provides a free, searchable OFAC SDN List database. That's right. Free. Would you believe me? You should.
Access the website here.
Please check the disclaimer for the website, which you may access here. The website is not affiliated with the U.S. Treasury Department, or any other government agency. Information retrieved from searches conducted on the website contains information made available from directly within the public domain of OFAC and is not altered. OFAC and NCUA have not endorsed the product.
That being said, credit unions should take a look at the website to see if using it makes sense. And you can't beat the price.
(By the way, I checked my name and Osama Bin Laden's on the site. One one gave a hit. Thank goodness.)
The OFAC website can be searched as well using this link. It's the SDN list in a .pdf file. Search using the little binocular icon:
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/t11sdn.pdf
Posted by: Southernmost Sue | January 30, 2008 at 01:00 PM
Thanks for the link, I wasn't aware of this service. A few things I noticed:
1) Does not include a country check (just SDN/PLC)
2) Limited fuzziness to the search algorithm (does not take into account nicknames and such)
3) Ran through a few Bin Laden aliases and it did not catch some of them
4) Seems to be updated daily (good!)
5) Addresses seem to be missing
6) No program specifier such as SDNT
All in all, not bad but not great. But as you mention - you can't beat the price.
Posted by: Gabe Anguiano | April 01, 2008 at 01:18 AM