Industry Notice - Dissemination of Targeted Financial Sanctions Designations (2020-02-07)

Summary

This is a short CIMA industry notice announcing an administrative service change rather than a new legal requirement: CIMA will begin automatically emailing notices to its registrants and licensees whenever a person or entity is added to the UK's OFSI Consolidated List of financial sanctions targets. The notice explains what the OFSI list contains (names, aliases, dates of birth, identifying numbers, etc.) and gives background on the international and domestic sanctions framework.

• The UN, EU, UK and the Cayman Islands Governor (via local designations) can all impose financial sanctions.
• The Cayman Islands Financial Reporting Authority (FRA) administers and coordinates sanctions implementation locally, including publishing guidance and the domestic consolidated list on its website.

The notice applies to CIMA registrants and licensees, and more broadly to any person or entity conducting relevant financial business in the Cayman Islands. It does not create new compliance procedures but reiterates that everyone conducting relevant financial business remains responsible for independently monitoring and complying with targeted financial sanctions in force, and points readers to the FRA's guidance and consolidated lists as the authoritative source.

Overall, this is primarily informational: it describes a new email alert service from CIMA and restates existing sanctions-compliance responsibilities, without imposing new filing deadlines or procedural requirements beyond ongoing compliance with TFS obligations.

Key obligations

• Every person or entity conducting relevant financial business in the Cayman Islands must keep itself updated on, and comply with, targeted financial sanctions (TFS) in force in the Cayman Islands, referring to FRA guidance and the applicable consolidated sanctions lists.

Applies to

registrants, licensees, persons conducting relevant financial business