Understanding sanctions
Sanctions are restrictions on trade and financial transactions. They aim to cut off resources to stop aggressive and harmful activity, for example, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, military conflicts, or human rights abuse.
Sanctions can be applied to:
- individuals or organisations (often known as ‘designated persons’)
- particular sectors, industries, activities, or services
- specific goods like arms, dual-use goods or technologies
- regions or entire countries.
How sanctions may affect you
We check transactions facilitated by us for sanctions compliance. We follow sanctions laws from New Zealand as well as those from relevant overseas sanctions authorities.
We may ask you for more information, to help us decide if we should process this kind of transaction. If you don’t provide this information your transactions may be delayed, or we may not be able to process your transactions.
We may ask you questions to understand how your business interacts with sanctions laws. This could include you filling out a questionnaire, and explaining how you deal with controlled goods or sanctioned countries. We need this information to safely offer our services, and to meet our legal obligation to understand our customers.
We’ll freeze (block) or reject a transaction where it’s necessary under our Sanctions Policy and/or applicable law. Applicable laws may also mean BNZ must file a report with a regulator.
More about how sanctions affect international payments.
Our compliance obligations
We follow all applicable sanctions laws, in all jurisdictions in which BNZ and its parent company, National Australia Bank (NAB) Group operate. These are, but not limited to, the sanctions and regulations administered by:
- New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control
- U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation
- Monetary Authority of Singapore
- European Union
- United Nations Security Council.
Breaches of sanctions laws may impact our business and that of our customers by incurring large penalties and funds being frozen (blocked).
Prohibitions
We’ve put measures in place to help us and our customers follow applicable sanctions laws.
This means prohibiting certain transactions. ^
- Transactions involving the following countries and jurisdictions (including customers who are currently located in these areas):
- Cuba
- Iran
- North Korea (DPRK)
- Syria
- regions of Ukraine not controlled by the Ukrainian government (including Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions).
- Nearly all transactions involving Russia or Belarus.
- Most commercial transactions involving:
- Afghanistan
- Myanmar
- parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions not controlled by the Ukrainian government
- Venezuela.
- Transactions involving individuals and entities designated (also known as designated person or specially designated nationals) by New Zealand or any other applicable overseas sanctions regulator.
- Transactions involving import and export restrictions implemented by New Zealand or any other applicable overseas regulator.
Sanctions queries
If you have any queries in relation to our Sanction Policy, please contact us.