Published on 8 April 2022
Communiqué

Restrictive measures of the EU in response to the current situation in Ukraine and anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing measures

Communiqué to all the persons and entities under the supervision of the CSSF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. The CSSF would like to draw the attention of the professionals of the financial sector subject to its supervision to certain future key dates as well as to certain deadlines related to the application of exemptions regarding certain prohibitions, provided for in the context of the financial restrictive measures of the EU in response to the current situation in Ukraine.

Indeed, notably on 12 April 2022, several financial restrictive measures must be put in place by the professionals. In this context, the financial restrictive measures, with their key dates, laid down in the following articles of Regulation (EU) 833/2014 of 31 July 2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine, as amended, should be noted in particular:

Article Dates             Subjects
Art. 2,

2a,

2b

 1 May 2022 Deadlines to apply for exemptions for certain financing or financial assistance transactions related to specific goods and technology
Art. 3 Exemption applied to the execution until 17 September 2022 of an obligation arising from a contract concluded before 16 March 2022, or from a necessary ancillary contract Prohibition (notably to provide financing or financial assistance)[1] related to goods and technology as listed in Annex II
Art. 3b Exemption applied to the execution until 27 May 2022 of an obligation arising from a contract concluded before 26 February 2022, or from a necessary ancillary contract Prohibition (notably to provide financing or financial assistance) related to goods and technology suited for use in oil refining as listed in Annex X
Art. 3g Exemption applied to the execution until 17 June 2022 of an obligation arising from a contract concluded before 16 March 2022 or from a necessary ancillary contract Prohibition (notably to provide financing or financial assistance) related to certain iron and steel products as listed in Annex XVII
Art. 5.1. Notably those issued after 12 September 2014 until 12 April 2022 (with a maturity exceeding 30 days) or issued after 12 April 2022 Prohibition of certain transactions in transferable securities and money-market instruments[2] or any other transaction relating to them
Art. 5.2. Those issued after 12 April 2022 Prohibition of certain transactions in transferable securities and money-market instruments or any other transaction relating to them
Art. 5.3. Those issued after 12 September 2014 until 12 April 2022 (with a maturity exceeding 30 days) or issued after 12 April 2022 Prohibition of certain transactions in transferable securities and money-market instruments or any other transaction relating to them
Art. 5.4. Those issued after 12 April 2022 Prohibition of certain transactions in transferable securities and money-market instruments or any other transaction relating to them
Art. 5.5. As from 12 April 2022 Prohibition of certain services on trading venues registered or recognised in the Union for transferable securities
Art. 5aa Exemption applied to the execution until 15 May 2022 of an obligation arising from a contract concluded before 16 March 2022 or from a necessary ancillary contract Prohibition to engage in transactions with certain designated persons
Article 5e After 12 April 2022 Prohibition of certain services of central securities depositories of the Union
Article 5f Those issued after 12 April 2022 Prohibition to sell certain transferable securities (denominated in euros) or units in UCIs providing exposure to such securities, to certain persons
Article 5g No later than 27 May 2022 and then every 12 months Information required on certain deposits exceeding 100,000 EUR
Article 5j As from 15 April 2022 Prohibition to provide certain credit rating services or subscription service in relation thereto

 

As regards the next key dates under Council Regulation (EU) 2022/263 of 23 February 2022 concerning restrictive measures in response to the recognition of the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine and the ordering of Russian armed forces into those areas, please refer to the following table:

Article Dates Subjects
Art. 2 Exemption applied to the execution until 24 May 2022 of an obligation arising from a contract concluded before 23 February 2022 or from a necessary ancillary contract Prohibition (notably to provide financing or financial assistance) related to the import of certain goods
Art. 4 Except for execution until 24 August 2022 of an obligation arising from a contract concluded before 23 February 2022 or from a necessary ancillary contract Prohibition (notably to provide financing or financial assistance) related to goods and technology listed in Annex II

For details, we invite you to refer to the text of Regulation (EU) 833/2014 for which a consolidated version was published by the European Commission and which is available under the following link: EUR-Lex – 32014R0833 – EN – EUR-Lex (europa.eu) and of Regulation (EU) 2022/263 which is available under the following link: Publications Office (europa.eu).

As a reminder, a special section on current financial restrictive measures in relation to the situation in Ukraine, which also includes other useful information including the specific FAQ issued by the CSSF and other bodies, is also available on the CSSF website at the following dedicated links:

Ukraine crisis

International financial sanctions – CSSF (tab Ukraine/Russia)

Research results for “Ukraine” – CSSF

This section will also include any future regulatory changes.

Please note that the financial restrictive measures decided in March 2022 against Belarus, through the amendment of Council Regulation (EC) 765/2006 of 18 May 2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine, are also linked to the current situation in Ukraine. A consolidated version of Regulation (EC) 765/2006 was published by the European Commission and is available at the following address: EUR-Lex – 02006R0765-20220310 – EN – EUR-Lex (europa.eu).

Furthermore, the CSSF reminds that these European regulations are binding in their entirety and directly applicable in national law and that professionals are required to comply with them, while putting in place the necessary controls and measures. Moreover, the professionals must assess whether, in addition to the restrictive measures directly applicable in Luxembourg, other financial restrictive measures of third countries must be implemented by the professionals according to the international nature of their activities.

2. It must be stressed that, irrespective of the cooperation with the competent authorities in the context of the application of financial restrictive measures, the professionals must submit without delay, a suspicious transaction report to the Financial Intelligence Unit in Luxembourg (“FIU”) “when they know, suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that money laundering, an associated predicate offence or terrorist financing is being committed or has been committed or attempted, in particular in consideration of the person concerned, its development, the origin of the funds, the purpose, nature and procedure of the operation”, in accordance with the obligations laid down in Article 5(1)(a) of the Law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (“AML/CFT Law”).

Even though the financial sanctions are not, per se, a money laundering primary offence that must entail a suspicious transaction report, ongoing vigilance is required regarding any form of primary offence that could be perpetrated in the current context of the situation in Ukraine and the displacement of millions of Ukrainians to the EU, whose primary offence could be operated through professionals of the financial sector.

On this basis, we draw your attention to two documents of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). These documents contain many case studies and describe the specific risks and indicators linked notably to offences related to human trafficking and migrant smuggling, all money laundering primary offences:

Moreover, in addition to the high risk of computer attacks and relating consequences for the person concerned (e.g. in terms of security and functioning)(cf. CSSF circular letter of 1 March 2022), the resulting financial criminal aspect, such as the laundering of the funds obtained through (IT) scams or frauds, must be taken into account.

Commission de Surveillance du Secteur financier

1 Definition according to Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 833/2014: “financing or financial assistance” means any action, irrespective of the particular means chosen, whereby the person, entity or body concerned, conditionally or unconditionally, disburses or commits to disburse its own funds or economic resources, including but not limited to grants, loans, guarantees, suretyships, bonds, letters of credit, supplier credits, buyer credits, import or export advances and all types of insurance and reinsurance, including export credit insurance; payment as well as terms and conditions of payment of the agreed price for a good or a service, made in line with normal business practice, do not constitute financing or financial assistance.

2 Definitions according to Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 833/2014:  “transferable securities” means the following classes of securities, including in the form of crypto-assets, which are negotiable on the capital market, with the exception of instruments of payment: (i) shares in companies and other securities equivalent to shares in companies, partnerships or other entities, and depositary receipts in respect of shares; (ii) bonds or other forms of securitised debt, including depositary receipts in respect of such securities; (iii) any other securities giving the right to acquire or sell any such transferable securities or giving rise to a cash settlement determined by reference to transferable securities;

“money-market instruments” means those classes of instruments which are normally dealt in on the money market, such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial papers and excluding instruments of payment.