The Daniel Ortega regime put into effect some reforms to the regulations of the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF) on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/FT), to apply them together with the Law for the protection of those sanctioned.
Among the changes, a new section is established to order that the country’s banking institutions may define the convenience or not of establishing commercial relationships with “persons designated on lists” and “designated as money launderers.”
Related news: SIBOIF has fined seven banks almost 130 thousand dollars and more than 2 million córdobas in 2024
Precisely the addition to article 11 establishes that national banking entities must carry out “intensified due diligence for “customers designated on lists””, without specifying what type of lists they refer to, which some analysts interpret as meaning that it is “lists of those sanctioned by the international community.”
However, it is clarified that these clients or potential clients must be informed to the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), in charge of monitoring matters related to Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/FT).
The same addition to the regulations of the Superintendency of Banks establishes that financial institutions must verify that “for clients designated on lists”, the provision of international financial services does not put their international commercial relationships at risk. Also in the case of clients designated as money launderers, terrorists”, the same in the case of “financiers of terrorism or for being linked to organized crime.”
The SIBOIF, the control body of the dictatorship’s banking system, has already shown effective and sharp fangs when it comes to applying sanctions to bleed thousands of dollars from national banks for minor and routine infractions, and that is an example of What awaits the country’s financial institutions if they dare to violate the Sanctioned Law.
During 2024, seven financial institutions have been sanctioned with fines totaling 128 thousand dollars plus 2 million 219 thousand 894 córdobas.
This year the SIBOIF fined the Ficohsa Bank twice. The first sanction against this financial institution was in May, through resolution OSB-007-2024, with 20 thousand dollars for “non-compliance with the CoR Regulation”, that is, a regulation on Risk Centers.
The second through resolution OSB-013-2024, from May of this year with 10 thousand dollars for “Failure to report Related Parties.”
Meanwhile, Banco de la Produccion SA (Banpro) received two sanctions in the same month of May, the first of 2 million 146 thousand 926 córdobas, for “Breach of Law No. 842 Law on the Protection of the Rights of users” and the second of 21 thousand dollars, for “Inspection results.”
An official from the United States Department of State responded to a question posed to him Article 66 about the latest measures of the Daniel Ortega dictatorship, which intends forcing Nicaraguan financial institutions to evade restrictions imposed on figures of the Sandinista government who have been designated by the Department of the Treasury and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The official said, on condition of not mentioning it directly until the entity issues an official communication, that the United States is aware of the long list of legal reforms that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have promoted, and that they are evidence that in Managua the consolidation and absolute concentration of power in the Executive is underway.
He assessed that the concentration of power in the Executive and the extension of the terms of the heads of the Army and Police, added to the attempt to create ways to evade the sanctions imposed by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, will end. by further isolate Nicaragua.
The source was categorical in affirming to this media that the United States sanctions and visa restrictions on the repressive operators of the Nicaraguan dictatorship remain in force and emphasized that they have been applied based on international law, in response to the arguments of the spokesmen of the Sandinista regime and other autocratic regimes, who describe them as “unilateral aggressions.”
