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1202. Following the November 21, 2024 designation of Russian financial institutions, Treasury has now designated a significant number of financial institutions in Russia. Will this negatively impact the processing of personal, non-commercial remittances to or from Russia?

Answer

No. Treasury's sanctions target Russian financial institutions that have continued to help Russia gain access to the critical goods it needs to prosecute its war in Ukraine. As a general matter, personal, non-commercial remittances are not the target of sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia.

There remain a number of non-sanctioned Russian banks, subsidiaries of foreign banks, and money service businesses that can continue to process legitimate transactions, including non-commercial, personal remittances.

U.S. and foreign financial institutions may continue to process transactions for activities, such as the facilitation of personal non-commercial remittances, that do not involve blocked persons and are not otherwise prohibited by OFAC. In addition, OFAC maintains various authorizations related to legitimate humanitarian activity and agricultural and medical trade, which include authorizations for dealings with certain sanctioned Russian financial institutions, such as General License (GL) 6D (authorizing transactions related to certain agricultural and medical activities); U.S. and foreign financial institutions may continue to process transactions for such authorized activities as well.

Date Released
November 21, 2024