United States

OFAC was formally created in December 1950, following the entry of China into the Korean War, when President Truman declared a national emergency and blocked all Chinese and North Korean assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic sanctions against targeted foreign jurisdictions and regimes, as well as individuals and entities engaging in harmful activity, such as terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, weapons of mass destruction proliferators, and others in response to threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. OFAC-administered sanctions take various forms, most commonly barring targeted individuals from the U.S. financial system and from conducting transactions with U.S. persons. In this way, economic sanctions can be an effective tool to bring about a positive change in the behaviour of targeted foreign persons.