Amid the £231 Million Lloyds Bank Penalty, Asia Pacific Entities Face Heightened Risk of U.S. Sanctions Enforcement

Hong Kong, China (March 27, 2009) /ChinaNewswire.com/ — Senior legal and compliance executives from Credit Suisse, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Baker Hughes, Norinco and J.P. Morgan will be discussing how to overcome heightened screening and sanctions compliance challenges at The C5 Group/American Conference Institute's Asia Forum on Economic Sanctions & OFAC Compliance, scheduled for June 18-19, 2009 in Hong Kong.

Adam Szubin, Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), U.S. Department of the Treasury (Washington), will be the conference Keynote Speaker. The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) has been increasingly willing to treat a foreign entity's use of the US financial system as the basis for US jurisdiction, even if the transaction begins and ends outside the US, with no other US element involved.

Sponsored by Deloitte, this is the only conference in the region that will provide attendees with a thorough and practical discussion of best practices for addressing key screening and sanctions compliance issues that are especially heightened in the Asia Pacific. U.S. enforcement authorities have been increasingly willing to levy staggering penalties against a foreign entity for US sanctions violations – no matter where the entity is located in the world. As a recent example, Lloyds TSB recently agreed to pay £231million to US authorities, the largest penalty ever for a breach of US sanctions.

Conference topics will include:

– What the extraterritorial reach of US Sanctions means for entities in the Asia Pacific
– Lessons learned from the Lloyds TSB penalty: OFAC's compliance expectations for US and non-US entities in the Asia Pacific
– Implementing a robust screening program: Resolving transliteration challenges and integrating all restricted parties
– Minimising sanctions risks in the context of trade finance
– Conducting due diligence for international transactions and underwritings
– Developing a risk-based sanctions compliance program from the ground up
– EU and UN updates, and how to reconcile potential conflicts with US sanctions

Delegates can further solidify their understanding of complex US sanctions regulations by registering for the post-conference workshop, "Fundamentals of Compliance with US Economic Sanctions Laws" on June 19, 2009. During this practical working session, delegates will benefit from an in-depth, hands-on discussion of the nuts and bolts of sanctions compliance, and how to deal with day-to-day compliance issues.

Register now by calling +44 (0) 20 7878 6888 outside the US or 1-888-224-2480 in the US; faxing your registration form to +44 (0) 20 7878 6896 outside the US or 1-877-927-1563 in the US; or registering online at www.C5-Online.com/SanctionsAsia or www.AmericanConference.com/SanctionsAsia