News

In First Punitive Action, UK Sanctions Agency Assesses Modest Penalty Against Bank

By Koos Couvée

The United Kingdom's Office of Sanctions Implementation, or OFSI, announced its first enforcement action Monday, fining one of the country's oldest lenders £5,000 for processing a £200 transaction involving a blacklisted party. OFSI, a department within HM Treasury that functions similarly to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, claimed in a 1-page notice that London-based Raphaels Bank likely "knew or had reasonable cause to suspect" that the transaction in question involved a person designated by the European Union under sanctions targeting the misappropriation of Egyptian state funds. The enforcement action marks the first ever issued by OFSI, which was...

TO READ THE FULL STORY