Federal financial regulators are reminding firms of their obligations to help protect the financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing activities.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) Wednesday issued a notice to banks, insurers, and other financial firms under its jurisdiction, warning about transactions involving countries under scrutiny by the international anti-money laundering group, known as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

It notes that the FATF issued statements on June 21 regarding Iran, North Korea, among others. The FATF says that that it remains particularly concerned about Iran’s “continuing failure to address the risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system.” It also reaffirmed its call on members to advise their financial institutions to give special attention to business relationships and transactions with Iran, including Iranian companies and financial institutions.

As a result, OSFI is reminding all financial institutions about the risk of doing business with individuals and entities based in or connected to Iran, including the risk of correspondent relationships being used to bypass or evade counter-measures and risk mitigation practices. It asks that firms continue to classify clients, banks and other financial institutions based in or connected to Iran as high risk; that they apply enhanced customer due diligence measures to these clients and entities; and, that they consider the FATF’s concerns when deciding whether to file a suspicious transaction report involving Iran.

It also calls on firms to “review their internal processes relating to relationship management” with these sorts clients “in order to ensure that they continue to treat all clients, banks and other financial institutions based in or connected to Iran as high risk, and have processes to escalate the relationship to more senior levels of management under appropriate circumstances.”

OSFI reiterates similar concerns, and calls for firms to take the same measures for those involved with North Korea, noting that the FATF remains concerned about its failure to address the significant deficiencies in its anti-money laundering regime and “the serious threat these pose to the integrity of the international financial system.”

It also advises firms to review new guidance from the FATF regarding the imposed sanctions against Iran and North Korea by the United Nations and Canada.

Additionally, it reports that the FATF has determined that numerous countries haven’t complied with their action plans designed to address strategic deficiencies, and that OSFI expects firms to consider transactions involving these countries to be considered high risk.