OFAC checking has been a necessary part of banking since November of 2001. 2007 seems a little late to the party.
How long has OFAC been a requirement?
Those of you with an interest in genealogy can trace OFAC's family tree back to the War of 1812 when the Secretary of the Treasury administered sanctions against England for harassing American sailors. During the United States' next war, the Civil War, Congress passed a "Trading With The Enemy Act" (TWEA) which blocked transactions with the Confederacy and called for the forfeiture of goods involved in those transactions.
This act was modernized in 1917 as a result of World War I. In 1940, while Germany was invading Norway, the Office of Foreign Funds Control (OFFC) was established to administer the TWEA to prevent Nazi use of holdings of occupied countries. OFAC was formally created as a successor to OFFC in December 1950 when China entered the Korean War and President Truman acted to block all Chinese and North Korean assets subject to United States Jurisdiction.