Financial sanctions guidance

The Office of Financial Sanction Implementation (OFSI) of the HM Treasury has published an updated version of its „OFSI enforcement and monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions“. The guidance seeks to help firms and individuals understand the OFSI’s approach to enforcing financial sanctions with the aim to foster compliance with such and to respond to breaches in a proportionate, adequate, and consistent manner. The guidance thereby includes
– an explanation of what financial sanctions are, what the powers of the HM Treasury are in this context, and what breaching a financial sanction means;
– a description of the approach of the OFSI to the assessment of
– whether or not a breach has taken place;
– whether or not a breach should be punished;
– a description of the factors the Office will take into account when determining the scope of the punishment. Such factors include, for instance, the monetary value of the violation, the number of previous violations, the type of violation (e.g. sanction evasion versus typical sanction breaches), or whether or not the person or firm has made a self-disclosure;
– a detailed description of how the level of the monetary penalty is determined;
– a description of the process following the OFSI’s decision to implement a monetary policy; and
– a description of the steps a violator may take when seeking to repeal any such decision.
As our text comparison tool revealed, this latest revised version contains modifications throughout the entire document, with a key focus – however – on providing further detailed information on how OFSI „assesses the severity of breaches“ and thus the amount of monetary penalty imposed on a firm or individual. As a consequence, changes have primarily been made to Chapter 3 „Case assessment“; specifically to parts 3.2 and 3.3. All other modifications are primarily minor and redactional in nature.