Authors: Daniel Hudson, Partner, London and Daniel Hyde, Associate (Australia), London
On 25 February 2019, the UK Government’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) published a notification of its first imposition of a monetary penalty under new powers afforded to it under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (“the Act”). The £5,000 penalty was imposed on Raphaels Bank for dealing, without a licence, with funds belonging to a designated person in breach of EU financial sanctions in relation to Egypt. The penalty amount represents a 50 per cent reduction of the baseline penalty amount initially assessed by OFSI as a result of Raphaels Bank’s voluntary disclosure of the breach and subsequent cooperation.
The notification is brief, seemingly because OFSI is making ongoing enquiries in connection with other aspects of the breach unconnected with Raphaels Bank. However, it is apparent that OFSI determined the penalty amount in accordance with its case assessment process set out in its monetary penalty guidance (“Guidance”), which makes this case a useful, albeit currently limited, illustration of its application of that process.
In this briefing, we discuss the significance of the first monetary penalty imposed by OFSI, particularly:
- the reduction to the final penalty amount as a result of Raphaels Bank’s disclosure and co-operation;
- the low-value of the breach;
- the current brevity of the notification;
- possible public interest considerations behind the penalty; and
- the two procedural rights of review available under section 147 of the Act.
