The announcement, made 10 June, 2023, says that the closure of the FTP service is to bring OFAC's servers into line with US Government online security policy. But it also recognises that the FTP service is very widely used by financial sector and other businesses to maintain their OFAC sanctions lists.

OFAC says "OFAC is aware that many users utilise ofacftp.treas.gov to automate their sanctions list data downloads. OFAC will maintain this server for one additional calendar year to allow users sufficient time to develop automation that utilises the list content hosted on the agency's website at the URLs listed below."

* Human-readable SDN List Files: Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN) Human Readable Lists | Office of Foreign Assets Control (treasury.gov) [ https://ofac.treasury.gov/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-pe… ]

* SDN List Data Files: Specially Designated Nationals List - Data Formats & Data Schemas | Office of Foreign Assets Control (treasury.gov) [ https://ofac.treasury.gov/specially-designated-nationals-list-data-form… ]

* All non-SDN List Data Files (Consolidated List): Consolidated Sanctions List (Non-SDN Lists) | Office of Foreign Assets Control (treasury.gov) [ https://ofac.treasury.gov/consolidated-sanctions-list-non-sdn-lists ]

* All non-SDN human-readable list files: Other OFAC Sanctions Lists | Office of Foreign Assets Control (treasury.gov) [ https://ofac.treasury.gov/other-ofac-sanctions-lists ]"

What OFAC means to say is that the existing servers will close on 10 June, 2024 and not, as the notice might appear to imply, continue for one year after that date.