156. How will U.S. and foreign financial institutions know that the Treasury Department has made such a finding?
As a general matter, the Treasury Department will reach out to foreign financial institutions to inquire about their conduct before making a finding. If the Treasury Department decides to impose strict condition(s), the Treasury Department will issue an order or a regulation that sets out the strict condition(s) to be imposed on the U.S. correspondent accounts or U.S. payable-through accounts of the relevant foreign financial institution and publish the order or regulation in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is available at www.gpo.gov/fdsys/. If the Treasury Department decides to prohibit the opening or maintaining of U.S. correspondent accounts or U.S. payable-through accounts for a foreign financial institution, the Treasury Department will add the name of the foreign financial institution and publish it to the part 561 list.
[10-6-2026 Update – OFAC amended the FAQ to refer to the “Notice to Foreign Financial Institutions Conducting Business with Iran”. See comments thereto]
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Since the time this FAQ was issued, OFAC has only enforced CAPTA sanctions on one occasion; see Secondary Sanctions Enforcement Announcement - Kunlun Bank (China) and Elaf Bank in (Iraq). The notion that there would be substantial "outreach" prior to a decision to initiate an enforcement action appears to be the case with respect to all CAPTA sanctions, not only CISADA-based ones. Refer to Trial Court Testimony of Adam Szubin and David Cohen re: the Application of Secondary Sanctions in United States v. Atilla, and comments thereto.