Madrid/Starting this Wednesday, US banking entities will not be able to open or maintain accounts of Cuban entrepreneurs, unless they have a license from the Office for Foreign Assets Control (Ofac). This is indicated by the organization itself, dependent on the Treasury Department, in an information alert issued this Tuesday in which expands restrictions of trips and transactions with the Island.
Banks that already have accounts for these clients, the text states, “must block all these funds and accounts and communicate them to OFAC, unless they have specific authorization from this organization.” Likewise, a license is needed to access blocked funds.
According to the agency, banking entities can still open and maintain accounts for other Cuban citizens who are in Cuba, as long as it is to receive “payments for authorized or exempt transactions under the Cuban Asset Control Regulations (CACR).”
The previous regulations allowed these entrepreneurs to open and manage accounts remotely, even from Cuba or third countries.
The new prohibition directly affects private sector nationals on the Island who until now could use accounts in US banks to receive payments for authorized operations. Previous regulations allowed these entrepreneurs to open and manage accounts remotely, even from Cuba or third countries, to collect from the sale of goods and services and make transfers linked to activities permitted by US regulations, but this is no longer the case.
“Persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States are now prohibited from carrying out financial transactions, both direct and indirect, with any entity or subordinate entity included in Cuba’s List of Restricted Entities,” indicates OFAC.
Likewise, the new provisions eliminate the authorization to process so-called transfers U-turnoperations that do not have origin or destination in the United States but do use a US bank as an intermediary. These were permitted as long as the sender and recipient were not persons subject to US jurisdiction, and will also be repealed this September 30, unless there is another authorization or an applicable exemption.
In 2024, the US Administration had recovered that route to facilitate payments and remittances related to authorized activities of the Cuban private sector. Among the objectives declared at the time by the Treasury Department was precisely to favor independent entrepreneurs through access to financial services and streamlining payments.
Among the limitations established by OFAC as of this Wednesday are those that apply to Americans traveling to Cuba. From now on, professional meetings and conferences are no longer authorized, although OFAC has established a transitional period of 30 days to “conclude certain travel operations and other transactions that were previously permitted by this general license.”
Regarding educational trips, they can only be done “under the auspices of an organization also subject to US jurisdiction.”
As for educational trips, they can only be done “under the auspices of an organization also subject to US jurisdiction.” Additionally, travelers “must be accompanied by a representative of the sponsoring organization.”
Ofac points out, however, that “accredited US institutions that grant undergraduate or graduate degrees, their students, and their permanent full-time employees who carry out certain educational activities may travel without being accompanied by a representative of the sponsoring organization.”
“People-to-people” group educational exchange trips, which were previously authorized, are also generally no longer permitted. The agency exempts those who “have already completed at least one operation related to the trip, for example, the purchase of a plane ticket” before September 30, in which case the trip “will continue to be authorized.”
The new restrictions do not eliminate the twelve categories of travel contemplated by the US travel program. sanctions against Cubaalthough they modify the conditions of some of them. Among the activities that continue to have general or specific authorizations are family visits, journalism, religious activities, certain humanitarian projects, sports competitions and certain professional and educational activities. Each category is subject to particular requirements and conditions, which travelers must comply with and document.
These modifications to the Cuban Assets Control Regulation, OFAC recalls, are in addition to the measures provided for by Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, which mainly establishes new powers to sanction foreign persons, Cuban or other nationalities, who participate in certain activities related to Cuba that Washington considers harmful to its national security or foreign policy.
“Although the number of existing accounts was small and the immediate effect of the measure may seem minimal, the signal is clear in terms of the future”
Regarding the measures issued this Tuesday, the Cuban consultant did not take long to speak out. Oniel Díaz Castellanosfounder of Auge, who points out that “the authorization for US banks to open accounts for Cuban private entrepreneurs was approved during the Biden administration in May 2024, but it was never applied on a large scale because many banks avoided doing so for fear of being sanctioned under the general scheme of the blockade.”
The specialist assures that “only a small number of Cuban MSMEs and private individuals managed to open these accounts, which they used to pay mainly for operations in the United States,” but at the same time he concedes that “they have reached record levels this year.” Díaz Castellanos estimates that “although the number of existing accounts was small and the immediate effect of the measure could seem minimal, the signal is clear in terms of the future.”
The measure, he concludes, “creates additional obstacles to the success of the new possibility that the Cuban Government gave to the private sector since June 2026 with its 176 measures, in particular its participation in the financial sector, by closing any banking connection option, no matter how minimal, with the United States, headquarters of the main market for this type of entities and home of the Cuban-American community that constitutes a source of seed capital and purchasing power in Cuba.”
And he predicts that from now on, it is expected that non-US banks will also tighten up their processes that usually manage the largest number of private sector transactions to purchase goods and services in the foreign market. They may from now on toughen and tighten their standards and verification processes, “which could generate new obstacles and difficulties to the payment process for international purchases carried out by the private sector, on which the entire process of importing food and fuel, among other products important to national life, is supported.”
