Sanctions

Sanctions refer to laws issued by countries like the UK and the US and supranational organisations like the EU and the UN. These laws are designed to influence certain unwanted behaviour or policy by other countries, persons or groups (like terrorist organisations) to achieve the issuing authority’s foreign policy objectives. 

Typical restrictions under sanction laws include asset freezes, arms embargos, travel bans, export/import bans and prohibitions on providing certain services. Several different restrictions have an obvious effect on financial institutions, such as restrictions that prohibit financial services to certain entities or industry sectors, financing of certain types of transactions or asset freezes. 

Nordea has a responsibility towards its customers, shareholders, regulators and society to ensure that Nordea does not itself violate applicable sanctions laws and regulations and that Nordea’s products and services are not, knowingly or inadvertently, used in violation of relevant or applicable sanctions laws and regulations. Violating sanctions is a severe offence and may result in monetary fines, regulatory enforcement actions and/or criminal charges. 

Nordea is committed to ensuring that it complies with all applicable sanctions laws and regulations. Therefore Nordea applies the EU sanctions regime, UN sanctions regime and adheres to UK and US sanctions regimes on a Group-wide basis. 

Additionally, Nordea has adopted internal policies to address the totality of financial crime and other risks stemming from specific geographic areas, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Belarus, Syria, Crimea, Sevastopol and the oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Thus, as a general rule, Nordea neither processes payments nor conducts other business activities related to these specific areas.

For additional information, please refer to Nordea’s Sanctions Policy Statement.

What kind of legal advice regarding sanctions can Nordea provide to its customers?

From a legal perspective, Nordea can only provide information on what its sanctions policies are and how they may apply to a transaction you would like to authorise using Nordea’s platform. Nordea does not offer its customers general legal advice on how sanctions laws apply to them or their activities.