[17448]
April 29, 2004
TO: COMPLIANCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE No. 45-04
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE No. 22-04
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE No. 17-04
MONEY LAUNDERING RULES WORKING GROUP No. 14-04
PRIMARY CONTACTS - MEMBER COMPLEX No. 40-04
TRANSFER AGENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE No. 39-04
RE: OFAC UPDATE – SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO LIBYA SANCTIONS
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)1 issued a bulletin today announcing
significant changes to its sanctions program against Libya, including authorizing most
prospective transactions with Libya.
The Libyan General License signed and announced on Friday, April 23, is effective as of
today, Thursday, April 29, 2004. While Libyan property and interests in property currently
blocked must remain blocked unless specifically licensed or otherwise authorized for release,
new transactions involving "[LIBYA]" entries on OFAC's SDN list need no longer be interdicted.
Accordingly, those entries have been removed from the SDN list.
All of OFAC's SDN material has been updated accordingly as have OFAC's industry
brochures and Libya program brochure. For more information, visit OFAC's website at
http://www.treas.gov/offices/eotffc/ofac/sanctions/libya_gl2.pdf.
Robert C. Grohowski
Associate Counsel
1 OFAC regulations require US persons, including investment companies, to block all accounts and assets of persons
or entities named by OFAC. For an overview of OFAC regulations and a description of the various measures that
mutual fund organizations may wish to consider adopting to ensure compliance with those regulations, refer to the
Institute’s paper entitled “Foreign Assets Control Compliance for Mutual Funds.” This paper is available on the
Institute’s members’ website at http://members.ici.org. The members’ website is password-protected; staff at
Institute member firms may request access codes by filling out the enrollment form on the website.