The US and UK have agreed to bolster their co-operation in implementing and enforcing financial sanctions as they try to make it harder for Russia and other countries to elude economic punishment imposed by the west.
In a joint announcement due to be published on Monday and obtained by the Financial Times, top officials at the US and UK Treasury said they had decided to take their collaboration to a “new level”.
“We will identify opportunities to pool expertise, to think creatively about the challenges we face, to explore opportunities to align the way we implement sanctions, and to assist our stakeholders either through joint products or by providing guidance resulting from collaboration behind the scenes,” wrote Andrea Gacki, director of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Giles Thomson, director of the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation at the UK Treasury.
“Over time, we expect to realise the benefits of our collaboration not only in relation to the sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also across other common sanctions regimes . . . our common values and combined role in the global financial system make our partnership incredibly potent,” they added.
The announcement comes as Washington and London, along with other western allies, are considering new ways to punish Russia for its latest military escalation against Ukraine, but also signalled their intention to impose financial restrictions on entities in third countries assisting Moscow in the war.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury is planning to create a new role of chief sanctions economist to examine the economic effect of sanctions, while OFSI is expanding into a larger organisation.
Gacki and Thomson said the OFAC and OFSI were particularly focused on joint approaches to “cyber threats and the misuse of virtual assets, improving information sharing, and ensuring that our sanctions do not prevent humanitarian trade and assistance from reaching those in need”.
“Financial sanctions will continue to be a vital tool in supporting the United States’ and United Kingdom’s respective foreign policy and national security aims,” they added. “They also help to protect the integrity of our financial systems as part of wider efforts to tackle corruption, kleptocracy, and other forms of economic crime.”