Sanctions Monitoring Program
Sanctions Monitoring Program
Popular Services
Maritime Cook Islands (MCI) as the Cook Islands Ship Registry Administrator, ensures that its operations align with government policies on enforcing and monitoring sanction compliance.
Consistent with the Cook Islands government policy MCI insists that flagged vessels comply with UN, OFAC, UK and EU sanctions.
MCI enforces recognised sanctions and regulatory requirements by de-registering designated vessels and through a comprehensive monitoring and compliance program.
The program includes:
Insurers
- All insurers undergo onboarding and annual vetting in accordance with IMO guidelines on accepting insurance providers. Insurers that are unable to comply will not be authorised service providers to Cook Island flagged vessels.
Pre-registration
- Comprehensive customer due diligence of owners, commercial operators, ISM managers and other persons of interest
- A detailed vessel vetting that includes ownership, previous flagging, ISM manager’s history and performance, statutory certification, detentions, abandonment and incidents history.
During registration
- Ongoing compliance screening is carried out for companies and individuals
- Shipping activities are monitored daily through the newly established Monitoring Division, responsible for real time vessel tracking with intelligence software that identifies and alerts suspicious and illicit activity; i.e. going dark by disabling or manipulating the Automatic Identification System (“AIS”) spoofing; ship-to-ship transfers (“STS”); voyage irregularities.
Consequences of suspicious and illicit activity
Alerts are treated seriously with immediate action and if required an investigation will be conducted.
Vessels found to be engaged or complicit in suspicious or illicit activity will be de-registered.
Maritime Cook Islands is committed to create awareness and assist in combatting bad actors by reporting necessary information through RISC1 and to relevant Cook Islands government agencies and other external sanction monitoring bodies.
Maritime Cook Islands is committed to continuously adapting and refining its approach to the complex and dynamic landscape of sanction risk monitoring and compliance.
Link below MCI circulars
For further details please contact monitoring@maritimecookislands.com
1 Registry Information Sharing Compact (RISC) is an initiative launched by leading ship registries, including those of Liberia, Panama, and the Marshal Islands, to enhance maritime compliance and security through information sharing.