OFSI provides additional guidance on trust services

23 Jul 2024, 59 mins ago

On 19 July, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) updated its FAQs by adding more guidance on trust services sanctions. The Sanctions team at Gherson LLP previously wrote on the topic, read our previous post on OFSI FAQs here.

New FAQs 92-98 provide a useful guidance to everyone who has been providing trust services, especially in the context of prohibitions and restrictions imposed by the UK Government since February 2022.

Trust services sanctions were introduced on 16 December 2022 by the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 17) Regulations 2022. Under Regulation 18C of the Russia Regulations it is prohibited to provide trust services to or for the benefit of designated persons. It is also prohibited for a person to newly provide trust services to or for the benefit of a person connected with Russia (unless they are continuing trust services that were provided before the regulations came into force).

A General Licence allowing wind down of trust services provided to designated persons is currently in place.

Trust services prohibitions apply not only in the UK but also across the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories (OTs). Thus, if you reside in Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man or any OTs, you need to exercise caution and ensure that you do not breach sanctions prohibitions as you may be criminally liable for doing so.

If you are a trust services provider and interested in whether you can provide not only trust services but any other professional and business services when operating or managing trust, please do not hesitate to contact the Gherson Sanctions team, who have experience in advising on sanctions related matters.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for advice, or send us an e-mail. Don’t forget to follow us on XFacebookInstagram, or LinkedIn to stay-up-to-date.

The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please do not hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.

©Gherson 2024