Category: Financial Services

Today OFSI announced it had imposed a £50,000 financial penalty on TransferGo in the latest example of the use of its civil enforcement powers.

OFSI’s penalty notice is available here.

The fine was imposed in relation to 16 transactions over nearly 2 years valued at just £7,674.77 through which funds were made available Russian National Commercial Bank, which is a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions.

TransferGo did not self report but did cooperate with the investigation.

OFSI’s notice makes clear that the RNCB was not the intended beneficiary of the transactions, rather the recipients of the transfers were accounts held by non-designated persons with RNCB. OFSI has made clear that as funds held in bank accounts are legally held by the banks, that these transfers all amounted to making funds available to RNCB

Today the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation imposed a civil penalty of £20,471,809.83 on Standard Chartered Bank in the latest (and largest) use of its civil enforcement powers. The fine included a 30% reduction to take account of self-reporting and cooperation.

OFSI’s Penalty Report can be found here.

The breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions regulation 833/2014 arose out of the provision of multiple loans to the non-EU subsidiary of a Russian bank in breach of the restrictions on certain Russian banks accessing the EU’s capital markets. In total 21 loans valued at over £97m were issued during the period after OFSI acquired its civil enforcement powers.

Initially OFSI’s fines were £31.5m, but the fines were reduced after Standard Chartered exercised its right to a ministerial review of the penalties.