For the second week of our Annual Compliance Conference, we discussed key trade compliance issues impacting our clients globally. Specifically, we discussed the trade policy response of the US, EU and U.K. to ever increasing geopolitical disruption, global strategies for handling sanctions regulators and enforcement, and key global sanctions and export controls developments.

In brief The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) plays a key role in monitoring how UK-regulated financial institutions guard against financial crime risks, and how effectively they implement financial crime policies and procedures. In recent months, as the UK and other governments have placed increasing focus on preventing the circumvention…

Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updates oil price cap guidance and issues derivatives general licence on 6 July 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.  

There are already big reforms planned for the UK Trade Remedies Authority – less than two years after its establishment – and for the overall operation of the UK trade remedies regime. On 9 March 2023, the UK Government announced changes to its trade remedies regime to transition to a more complex investigatory regime.

The UK’s trade remedies body, the Trade Remedies Authority announced on 22 February that it has begun a reconsideration of its recommendation in Case AD0012, concerning imports of certain aluminium extrusions originating in China. Notably, this was the TRA’s first anti-dumping investigation in response to an application from UK industry. A reconsideration application is a request for the TRA to review its findings in a concluded investigation.

The current global sanctions environment — the new normal for Swiss companies: This was the topic of a Russia-focused seminar with members of Baker McKenzie’s global sanctions and investigations team, on 7 February 2023.

On 21 February, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI“), announced that it had issued a monetary penalty totaling GBP 36,393.45 to Clear Junction Limited, a provider of payment services. This penalty follows (and is associated with) OFSI’s earlier GBP 50,000 penalty against TransferGo, announced in August 2021.

The ECB has warned European lenders of the potential risks they will face, should further sanctions be imposed against Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. The impact of any sanctions would not be limited to Russian financial institutions/businesses but is likely to be felt across the world, especially by financial institutions who have significant Russian exposure.

Baker McKenzie is pleased to invite you to an interactive webinar on 26 January 2022 focused on sanctions compliance in the Gulf. Our panel will include partners from our UK, US and Middle East sanctions teams.

On 9 September the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA“) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA“) published a letter to bank CEOs with the purpose of reiterating expectations of firms when undertaking trade finance activities. The Dear CEO letter addressed both conduct and prudential issues where the regulators consider that improvements are required in firms’ controls. The regulators stressed that “firms need to demonstrate that they have taken a risk sensitive approach to their control environment that ensures the relevant risks are effectively mitigated”, noting that the last 18 months have seen several “high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss”.