Media Release Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959 Sanctions Against Burma – Amendment to the Annex

The Reserve Bank of Australia, following a directive from the Australian Government under the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959, currently administers financial sanctions against senior members of the Burmese regime and their associates and supporters. The list of persons subject to sanctions includes current and key former members of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, current and key former ministers, senior military officers, prominent business associates of the Burmese regime, and immediate family members of these individuals.

The Australian Government has reviewed the list of persons subject to financial sanctions and has directed the Reserve Bank to remove 18 persons and add 63 new persons to the Annex of names. Amendments have also been made to 142 entries on the previous list. Attachment A provides details of these amendments. The updated Annex now contains 463 names.

Any transactions involving the transfer of funds or payments to, by the order of, or on behalf of any person listed in the Annex are prohibited without prior approval from the Reserve Bank.

UPDATE: On 7 March 2012, responsibility for the administration of Australia's autonomous financial sanctions was transferred from the RBA (under the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959) to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) (under the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011).
This change was announced in RBA Media Release No 2012-05. As a result, the content of this media release is no longer current and any accompanying annexes and/or attachments have been removed. For all enquiries about Australia's autonomous financial sanctions regime, including the current list of sanctioned individuals and entities, refer to the DFAT website.

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