On October 5, 2018, the U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published its Annual Review for the period from April 2017 to March 2018. OFSI was established in March 2016 with the objective of raising awareness of financial sanctions, assessing and addressing suspected sanctions breaches and providing a professional service to the public and industry. The Annual Review provides an overview of:

  1. UN and EU financial sanction regimes implemented by OFSI;
  2. OFSI's work on asset freezing and a breakdown of funds frozen;
  3. action taken by OFSI following reports of suspected breaches of financial sanctions;
  4. licenses issued by OFSI during the period; and
  5. awareness-raising activities.

The Annual Review also outlines OFSI's forward plans in the above areas. This includes: (i) a plan to improve searchability of OFSI's Consolidated List of financial sanctions targets; (ii) potentially imposing monetary penalties in 2018 – 19; (iii) further activities to raise awareness, including the publication of more targeted guidance on financial sanctions compliance and on changes to the legal framework for sanctions; and (iv) Brexit preparations.

The Annual Report is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/746207/
OFSI_Annual_Review_2017-18.pdf.

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