Align360 Notes New Federal Compliance Capabilities

Maine-based Align360, a business and IT consulting firm, announced the release of their FLAG360TM product for the INSideOUTSM system (formerly known as WPCSM).

As part of the Homeland Security Initiatives, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, more commonly known as OFAC, mandated that all insurance companies, including property and casualty insurers, validate their policy holders against a list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) maintained by OFAC.

After conducting a detailed analysis of the OFAC requirements and leveraging their experience with the INSideOUT architecture, Align360 (www.align360.com) has developed FLAG360, a new software tool that seamlessly integrates into the INSideOUT system. FLAG360 not only facilitates the identification of an SDN, it automatically blocks all further transactions with that SDN until due diligence can be performed. This functionality ensures a critical compliance activity required by the OFAC regulations.

According to Janeen Blanton, principal at Align360 and the INSideOUT practice leader, “We felt it necessary to go beyond the ‘black box’ functionality that others offer to help protect our clients. Because we understand deeply the INSideOUT architecture and exactly how the system processes transactions, we designed and built FLAG360 so that it transparently and automatically carries out the pre-emptive measures – precluding an inadvertent oversight. This ensures our clients comply with these new regulations and avoid the stiff financial and criminal penalties that can accompany those that merely identify an SDN but still leave their system open to transactions with that SDN.”

While the current version of FLAG360 is specifically built to use with INSideOUT, product development efforts are under way to integrate the same functionality into other policy/claims administration systems.

For more information on OFAC regulations, visit www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac.