OFAC Administrative Update: Contact Information and Gender-Neutral Terminology in Sanctions Regulations

Mechanism

A purely administrative final rule. No substantive sanctions program is created, modified, or rescinded. OFAC amended the following categories of changes across 31 CFR Chapter V:

1. Contact information (20 parts + Appendix): updated the name of an internal OFAC office and replaced a legacy email address with the current OFAC communications address. Parts affected include the core Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations (31 CFR 501) as well as individual country-sanctions program regulations covering Iran, Cuba, Burma, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Syria, Sudan (Darfur), Western Balkans, Yemen, Belarus, Ukraine, Libya, Zimbabwe, and others.

2. Mail-submission removal (2 parts): two parts previously allowed physical mail submissions for certain OFAC applications/requests; those options were removed to reflect current OFAC practice of electronic-only intake.

3. Gender-neutral language (4 parts): replaced singular "his" with "theirs" and "he" with "they" in four program regulations where gendered pronouns appeared as generic third-person references.

4. Statutory authority citations (31 CFR 594 + Appendix): updated to reference the relevant statutory authorities more precisely; no change in substantive authority.

Downstream implications

• No compliance burden change — existing licences, exemptions, prohibitions and

reporting obligations remain unchanged.

• Financial-institution compliance teams need no action; this is purely editorial.
• The rule's same-day effective date (no delayed implementation) is standard practice

for non-substantive administrative amendments.

Open questions

• None. This is a closed administrative action with no follow-on regulatory significance.