Sanctions

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This Overview provides a guide to the Banking & Finance content within the Sanctions subtopic, with links to the appropriate materials.

What are sanctions?

The principal purpose of sanctions in most cases is to change the behaviour of the target country’s regimes, individuals or groups. They are also used to apply pressure on a target country to comply with certain objectives, and enforce measures where diplomatic efforts have failed.

There are different sanctions regimes which affect UK businesses. Usually they are grouped into trade and financial sanctions:

  1. •

    trade sanctions (also known as embargoes) restrict trade and business with certain countries and impose either a prohibition or a licensing requirement on the sale, supply, transfer, export or import of specified items to or from a specified country and include economic travel bans, or financial or diplomatic restrictions, and

  2. •

    financial sanctions are measures which restrict dealings in money and the provision of financial services and include the prohibition of funds transfers to certain countries, individuals or entities

UK businesses can also be impacted by sanctions imposed by other countries. Of key note are the EU and US sanctions

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Latest Banking & Finance News

AFME publishes Q4 2025 Securitisation Data Snapshot

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has published its Securitisation Data Snapshot Q4 2025. AFME reports that European securitisation issuance rose in 2025, with €252.3bn issued, a 3.0% increase from 2024. Of this total, €156.3bn was placed (62%), led by Pan-European Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs) (€60.5bn), UK RMBS (€25.6bn) and German Auto ABS (€12.9bn). EU placed issuance (excluding CLOs) reached €57.0bn, compared with €38.2bn in the UK.

UNEP FI publishes technical note on emerging transition planning practices for banks

The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has published a technical note providing examples of how banks are implementing transition plan components, addressing the lack of standardisation in transition planning despite various regulatory and voluntary initiatives across jurisdictions. The publication complements the existing UNEP FI Guide to Transition Plans for Banks and focuses on operationalisation methods including supporting client transitions, adapting portfolio composition and contributing to systemic change. UNEP FI notes that transition plans are increasingly becoming a key focus area for policymakers and regulators, whilst highlighting the absence of standardisation regarding scope, structure, breadth and depth of information in transition plans.

ICMA publishes paper on the role of stablecoins in capital markets infrastructure

The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has published a paper assessing whether stablecoins could become a credible component of future capital markets infrastructure. The paper highlights growing regulatory convergence around core principles on reserves, redemption, safeguarding and the prohibition of interest, while also identifying fragmentation as a key systemic risk. The analysis focuses on fiat-backed stablecoins as potential on-chain settlement assets alongside wholesale central bank digital currencies and tokenised bank liabilities. ICMA identifies several material constraints, including regulatory limits on volumes and use cases, the absence of credit and interest, custody and technology risks and the operational costs associated with public blockchains. Drawing on market initiatives and ICMA-led work under Project Guardian, the paper concludes that stablecoins could play a complementary role in future market infrastructure, provided that regulatory clarity improves and cross-border alignment is strengthened.

Companies House postpones ECCTA 2023 presenter measures until November 2026

Companies House has updated its transition plan for implementing the provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA 2023), postponing the spring 2026 due date for presenter measures until no earlier than November 2026. This postponement aims to prioritise the completion of the identity verification transition period for directors and persons with significant control while affording additional time to address stakeholder feedback. The revised transition plan outlines an indicative timeline for the commencement of key provisions of the Act, which received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023.

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