In some ways, global sanctions screening and compliance for financial services firms may be getting a little more focused as the U.S. government issues more targeted restrictions upon sectors and individuals that may be engaged in financial crimes and other misdeeds.
The more targeted approaches are a major contrast to broader sanctions efforts that have been more the norm, says Kerri-Ann Bent, Americas head of sanctions, CIB, for Barclays.
“With the Sectoral Sanctions program that was announced in 2014, we’ve seen an evolution in sanctions,” Bent tells FTF News via a new video interview. In July 2014, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued broad sanctions against Russia, but also issued a list of sanctions against key industrial sectors of the Russian economy such as mining, military defense, financial services, and energy.
Many thought the more targeted list of sectors was an anomaly, Bent says. But since the Russian sanctions, the Obama administration and then the Trump team have issued targeted sanctions against individuals in the government of Venezuela as part of an ongoing effort by U.S. authorities.
“I think that’s a trend that we’re starting to see — where the governments are starting to take a targeted approach to sanctions rather than a more broad-based, blanketed approach that has been applied in the past,” Bent says.
Bent covers many other sanctions-related matters via the video.
FTF News interviewed Bent during the Securities Operations Conference (SecOps) produced by Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) in Toronto this past June. She served as a panelist for the “Canadian Markets Grapple with Crypto Currencies” session.
CREDITS:
Video Production: Janene Knox and William J. Poznanski, Jr.
Interview conducted by: Eugene Grygo, chief content officer, FTF News
Co-Producers: Sarah Hathaway, vice president, Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) and Eugene Grygo