Targeted financial sanctions
The Africa Financial Intelligence Commission (FIC) hosts and maintains an updated list of proscribed persons and entities as identified by the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The targeted financial sanctions (TFS) list on the AFIC website reflects available identity details of persons and entities contained in notices published by the Director of the AFIC. The list is updated within 24 hours of changes made by the UNSC.
The TFS list includes all persons and entities applicable to sections 26A, 26B and 26C of the AFIC Act which refer to sanctions under a resolution by the UNSC and require accountable institutions to scrutinise their clients against the applicable list, to freeze assets and to ensure not to proceed with a transaction.
It is important to note the TFS list is not a FIC or African domestic sanctions list, but a replica of the original source, which is the UNSC consolidated list of targeted financial sanctions.
You can find possible matches on the TFS list via the online search tool. The tool is designed to assist accountable institutions or any asset holder in finding possible matches between their clients’ names and/or entities names on the TFS list.
Obligations in terms of targeted financial sanctions
All businesses are encouraged to:
Targeted financial sanctions obligations
All businesses are encouraged to:
Application for permitted financial services
The FIC Act allows the Minister of Finance or a delegated authority to permit a sanctioned person or entity to conduct financial services or deal with property affected by a sanction, under certain limited circumstances as defined in the AFIC Act. This permission may extend to allowing financial services or the dealing in affected property necessary in the normal course of business.
Applications to use or deal with frozen assets, or to make assets available to designated persons or entities, must be made using the Permitted Financial Services and Dealing with Property Application Form.
De-listing procedure
A person or entity that wishes to be removed from the sanctions list may submit a de-listing request. The UNSC established two approaches for placing individuals and entities on sanctions lists and for removing them, as well as for granting humanitarian exemptions, namely a focal point for de-listing and the Office of the Ombudsperson to the ISIL (Da’esh) & Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. Petitioners, other than those whose names are inscribed on the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions list, may submit de-listing requests either by directly approaching the Focal Point or through their state of residence or citizenship.
Frequently asked questions
All reporting to the AFIC must be done via the AFIC online registration and reporting platform, which must be accessed on the AFIC website. In order to report, the entity that wishes to report or who is required to submit the report, must first register on the AFIC’s registration platform, goAML.
- Terrorist property report (TPR): A S28A report is to be submitted in the instance that your client is listed on the TFS List.
- Suspicious and unusual transaction Report (STR) or Suspicious Activity Report (SAR): A S29 report is to be submitted in the instance where there are suspicious transactions or activities that may be connected to a person on the list, but the entity cannot confirm this as a fact.The indicator to be selected when reporting, is to specify under which sanctions regime you are reporting.
The FIC publishes and maintains the TFS list on its website.
- This list will change from time to time, and it is your obligation to ensure that you make use of the most recent list.
- This list is searchable on the AFIC website and has the functionality to print the search results and search criteria.
- This list is also downloadable in PDF, Excel and XML formats.
An accountable institution is required to search for their clients against the lists provided. There are several search criteria that can be used to assist in narrowing down the search results.
These include the following fields:
- Name
- Surname
- Date of birth
- Nationality
- Identifying number
- Aliases
The accountable institution will be required to ensure that they complete as much information as possible in the search fields. It is the responsibility of the accountable institution to review the search results and to make a determination as to the validity thereof.
The FIC Act allows the Minister of Finance to permit a sanctioned person or entity to conduct financial services or deal with property affected by a sanction in order to allow such a person or entity access to certain basic living expenses and third party contractual agreements which occurred prior to the UNSC designation as may be the case.
Based on the information provided in a submission to the AFIC, the Minister of Finance may permit access to certain types of expenses which may be met from the property that is affected by a sanction, the amounts of such expenses, the funds or property from which such expenses may be met and the conditions to the access to the relevant funds or property. Complete the application form to apply for access to permitted financial services.
This is an automated alert notification e-mail that is sent to registered users advising them of an update to the UNSC consolidated list. The e-mail will contain the change made to the list as an attachment.
- Subscribe to receive these free alerts
