US Treasury Delists 84 Entities in Ongoing Sanctions Review

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday removed 84 individuals and companies from its primary sanctions list as part of an ongoing effort to streamline its economic enforcement tools. This action marks the second phase of a major review initiated in May to purge outdated entries and help financial institutions focus on higher-priority threats.

Details of the Delisting

The removals from the Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) primarily target obsolete entries. According to the Treasury, the action includes:

• 36 deceased individuals and their associated listings.
• 33 Iraq-related entities that were first designated in 1991 or 1992.
• 7 defunct narcotics listings related to Colombia.
• 8 disrupted narcotics kingpins.

In addition to the removals, OFAC updated the listings for 22 other individuals and entities to add or clarify key identifying information. The department also resolved 18 instances of duplicate entries on its sanctions lists, according to a Treasury statement.

Streamlining for Efficiency

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This move follows the removal of 76 targets in a previous action and is part of a review launched by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The goal is "to ensure Treasury sanctions remain efficient, sharp, and focused, and to remove bloat left over from previous administrations," a Treasury official told Reuters. The official noted that over 3,000 names were designated in 2024, a significant increase from 880 in 2017.

By cleaning up the 17,000-plus name sanctions list, the Treasury aims to ease the compliance burden on banks and other financial firms. Adding more robust data, such as dates of birth and unique ID numbers, is intended to make compliance screening less difficult. "At a time where so much movement is happening on the sanctions front, it needs to be as efficient as possible, or risk failures," said Brett Erickson, managing principal with Obsidian Risk Advisors.

Broader Context

The review prioritizes older sanctions entries that often lack the detailed identifying information now standard in new designations. Treasury said each removal is vetted by other government agencies to ensure it does not compromise U.S. foreign policy or national security interests.

As part of its modernization push, the Treasury also launched a new online portal on June 29, allowing sanctioned parties to formally request removal from the list. The department has emphasized that the effectiveness of sanctions should be measured by their impact, not simply by the number of entities on the list.