Our bank wants to start accepting wires directly from the Fed.I heard that the FED does not run OFAC on their wires. I want to make sure OFAC is ran before the wires reach our bank. So my question is, if you receive Fed wires, how do you conduct your OFAC screen prior to accepting the wire? Is it via a third party vendor? Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

FRB does not perform OFAC. There is no requirement for your bank to perform OFAC. The only requirement is that you do not enact a payment to/from a person/business/etc. on the OFAC list.

In reality, we perform OFAC scanning on the wires at the point of receipt, prior to accepting and posting to customers accounts. For outgoing, we perform OFAC scanning prior to the wire leaving the bank.

Both processes are done via our wire system, which is the Bankserv/Fundtech GFX platform

So if I'm uderstanding this right, you receive your Fed wires via the Bankserv software and it scans for OFAC prior to posting? Is it automated or does someone have to enter the wire information to run the OFAC?

automated

The bottom line is that the Fed does not perform any OFAC scan so depending on your own bank's OFAC risk assessment you might need to do it on each wire. If your OFAC risk assessment says you will not scan be prepared for possible examiner criticism.