Global awareness of the sanctions compliance landscape has increased. We regularly read and observe countless news reports, political discussions and enforcement actions that have become the talking point throughout the start of 2022. This tool of political foreign policy has been implemented en masse, in an attempt to stop aggressive actions and limit the devastating effects that are being reported.
A complex sanctions landscape
The dynamic nature of the sanctions landscape as well as the deceptive tactics deployed to attempt avoidance are all components which organisations must be aware of. This area is complex, to say the least, and businesses and organisations are solely responsible for the protection and mitigation against attempted violations.
Predominantly financial services have been focused on sanctions compliance and screening but these obligations extend to other sectors. Sanctions screening should not only cover customers but, third parties, the extended supply chain and even countries.
Adequate control measures can be used to ensure effective screening takes place to mitigate penalties that can be issued in the event of a sanctions violation
The power of screening
Performing screening and other checks is time-consuming and expensive and it is open to human error, with the risk of false negatives and positives. The dynamic nature of sanctions also means that keeping abreast of constant changes is difficult to do manually.
Thankfully, there is a range of tools available for compliance and operations teams to automate compliance processes including basic and enhanced due diligence and ongoing monitoring.
MCaaS CORE
Products such as Marcura’s MCaaS CORE, a fully cloud-based self-service platform for managing compliance checks, remove the bulk of the manual work and minimise the risk of engaging with a sanctioned entity. Once an organisation has strong and repeatable processes in place for sanctions compliance, digital tools can be used to automate many of the steps and decisions required as part of the process.
As well as operating as a self-service platform, MCaaS CORE is available as an API, meaning it can be integrated directly into an organisation’s systems and processes. Ultimately, this reduces costs while improving accuracy and making compliance checks a fast enabler of new relationships rather than a blocker. Compliance team members may choose to only get involved when there is an exception or a high-risk entity.
Want to learn more about maritime sanctions compliance?
Further details of the areas discussed within this article can be found within our latest report ‘Maritime Compliance – The rapidly changing maritime sanctions compliance landscape’. This guide to industry includes discussion on the landscape as well as sanctions compliance measures and how best to mitigate against the many associated risks.
