Sanctions

How it is used

Used in compliance, trade finance and payments. Banks screen customers and payments against sanctions lists, such as those of the UN, the EU and the US Treasury's OFAC, and freeze the assets of listed persons. Breaching sanctions can lead to heavy fines. In this sense the word is usually plural.

Example sentences

1. The payment was stopped because the beneficiary's name matched an entry on a sanctions list.

2. All trade finance transactions go through sanctions screening before approval.

Common collocations

• sanctions list
• sanctions screening
• impose sanctions
• breach sanctions
• sanctions compliance

Related terms

• complianceFollowing the laws, regulations and internal rules that apply to a bank; also the name of the department that checks that this happens.
• AMLShort for anti-money laundering: the laws, controls and procedures that banks use to prevent, detect and report money laundering.
• PEPShort for politically exposed person: someone with an important public role, such as a senior official or judge, or a close family member or associate of such a person.
• trade financeBanking products that help importers and exporters pay and get paid safely, and that finance goods while they are produced, shipped or sold.
• terrorist financingProviding or collecting money, from legal or illegal sources, knowing that it will be used to support terrorist acts or organisations.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• sanctions · International Relations & Diplomacy

More terms: Regulation & Compliance

• KYC
• money laundering
• fraud
• regulator
• capital adequacy ratio
• suspicious transaction report
• Basel III
• beneficial owner
• banking secrecy
• reserve requirement
• regulatory reporting