Banks are key to making sanctions work

The financial frontline of Russia’s war in Ukraine runs through the offices of overworked sanctions officers at banks everywhere. It is their job to freeze the accounts and assets of sanctioned oligarchs. The pressure is colossal: get it wrong or act too slow, and the impact on a bank’s brand and bottom line will be felt for years to come.

Life, for a growing number of risk and compliance experts at the world’s banks, changed irrevocably on February 24, when Russia’s president Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine.

Overnight, they went from being important but auxiliary functionaries to key decision makers, helping their firms make informed decisions about who they do business with in the face of sanctions lists targeting Russian and Belarusian persons and institutions.

For those at the coalface, it is a shock.

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