The U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory seeking to alert American financial institutions of Iranian efforts to circumvent increasingly intensifying sanctions as a result of its controversial nuclear program.

The advisory highlighted techniques employed by Iran to evade sanctions, which include the use of private exchange houses and trading companies in third countries as well as masking the involvement of U.S.-designated Iranian individuals, entities, or addresses in transactions.

In a conference call on the advisory, OFAC director Adam Szubin acknowledged that with ordinary banking channels virtually closed off, “Iran is adapting,” calling Iran’s usage of third-country trading houses an “evolving and emerging threat.”  

The advisory, issued January 10, called on U.S. financial institutions to exercise enhanced due diligence on transactions involving third-country exchange houses and trading companies in order to avoid processing transactions related to U.S.-designated Iranian entities.