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The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) is part of His Majesty’s Treasury. It is responsible for enforcing financial sanctions and regularly updates guidance on how financial sanctions regulations are implemented in practice.
The Regulations
The OFSI, as part of HM Treasury, are afforded powers through the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (the ‘2017 Act’) to impose monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions.
The regulations can be found here:
The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act is intended to amend the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and to ensure that the OFSI applies sanctions in a robust, fair, and effective manner. A link to the SAMLA can be found here:
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018
After a consultation period, new guidance was published on 9th February 2026 to provide clarity on OFSI's enforcement powers and the improvements made to the enforcement framework. The intention is to provide clarity on the implementation of OFSI obligations into working practice.
The new guidance sets out the following:
- A clear explanation of the powers given to the Treasury in the 2017 Act
- A summary of the OFSI compliance requirements and their approach to enforcement of the regulations
- An overview of how a monetary penalty will be enforced, and what criteria will be taken into consideration
- An overview of the process that is used to judge the level of monetary penalty to be imposed
- An explanation of how a monetary penalty will be imposed and the relevant timescales for each stage of the process, and the rights of review and appeal.
A link to the guidance published on the 9th February can be found here:
Financial sanctions enforcement and monetary penalties guidance - GOV.UK
Focus On: Embargoes, Sanctions and End-Use Controls
This half-day session highlights the importance of understanding embargoes and sanctions, focusing on UK regulations and the growing sanctions on Russia. It reviews current financial sanctions managed by OFSI and the severe consequences of non-compliance, including fines, reputation loss, and criminal charges. The course emphasises the need for exporters to comply with embargoes and sanctions.
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