President Obama on Tuesday authorized sanctions powers against groups and individuals deemed to have threatened or coerced state-run financial institutions in Libya or undermined the country's U.N.-backed leadership, the Government of National Authority.
The U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions enforcement arm has been increasingly looking at the compliance programs of banks that confuse transactional rejection and blocking orders, an official said Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury Department has accelerated efforts to remove qualified individuals and entities from its list of Specially Designated Nationals, according to the list's chief administrator.
U.S. financial institutions may be left to sort out the ultimate destination of billions of dollars in Libyan assets frozen in February in retaliation for the African government's brutal crackdown on protestors.
The U.S. and Europe issue new sanctions against Iran and Libya, Transparency International calls on Kenya to implement anti-money laundering legislation pending since 2009, and more, in this week's roundup.
A White House executive order issued late Friday in response to violence in Libya called on financial institutions to freeze the assets tied to the North African nation's government, but failed to specify one thing: how were compliance officers to know which accounts to block?
print