Sanctions screening will continue to dominate Compliance efforts in the financial services sector in 2016. And the force of financial sanctions as foreign-policy leverage is predicted to bring some new nations to the spotlight.
Predictably, Russia and Iran will continue to be the focus of sanctions, and the various terror attacks of 2015 have reenergized commitments in the West and beyond to crack down on terror financing.
Samuel Rubenfeld of the Wall Street Journal writes that new areas of emphasis in 2016 will include North Korea and parts of Africa. North Korea continues to draw attention because of its missile tests and other behaviors, and central Africa is the site of various volatile armed conflicts—and there is much more wealth and investment there than previously, which makes financial sanctions more viable.
Cuba, in contrast, is expected to see an ongoing easing of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. The process started last year and is expected to continue gradually. Rubenfeld noted that the U.S. Congress is not jumping on board with scaling back sanctions but that the president has indicated he is committed to moving on this within his executive authority.
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