The Treasury has the power to issue General Licences for financial and trade sanctions regimes under a number of Regulations.
On 06 October 2022, the Treasury amended the above General Licence under regulation 64 of the Russia Sanctions (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, as they apply to the Isle of Man by the Russia Sanctions (Application) Regulations 2020 [SD 2020/0504] (“the Regulations”).
Any persons intending to use a General Licence should consult a copy of the Licence for full details of the permissions and usage requirements which can be found attached to this release.
General Licence IOM/2022/RUS006 permits any subsidiary of VTB incorporated in the Isle of Man to make payments for basic needs including insurance premiums, property management services, remuneration, pensions of employees, tax, rent or mortgage. An IOM subsidiary may also make payments for, reasonable fees and service charges arising from routine holding and maintenance of frozen funds and economic resources. It also includes payments for professional fees and expenses associated with the provision of legal services.
This licence was amended on 8 April 2022 to broaden the actions that can be permitting to include receiving, processing and taking any other action regarding payments, Insolvency Proceedings, services, maintenance and fees relating to the IOM Subsidiary. It also extended the expiry date from March 2023 to April 2023.
This licence was amended again on 25 April 2022 to include Sberbank CIB (UK) Ltd.
On 23 August, General Licence IOM/2022/RUS006 was further amended to permit payments involving the Guernsey subsidiary of VTB, and VTB Bank (Europe) SE based in Germany along with its German subsidiaries.
On 06 October, General Licence IOM/2022/RUS006 was further amended to include payments related to Insolvency Proceedings under the German Banking Act.
Under General Licence IOM/2022/RUS006 the above entities may make payments for:
- their basic needs including: payment of insurance premiums; payment of reasonable fees for the provision of property management services; payment of remuneration, allowances or pensions of employees; payment of tax; payment of rent or mortgage payments; utility payments;
- reasonable fees or reasonable service charges arising from the routine holding and maintenance of their frozen funds and economic resources;
- reasonable professional fees for the provision of legal services or reasonable expenses associated with the provision of legal services.
Any person, including any of the above entities, may also:
4. make, receive or process any payments, or take any other action, in connection with any Insolvency Proceedings relating to the entities.
A person may receive payments made in accordance with 1 to 4 above.
A relevant Institution may process payments in accordance with 1 to 4 above.
Notification requirement
When payments are made under 1 to 4 above, the entities must provide written notice to the Treasury that it is conducting activity permitted under this licence and must supply the Treasury with its current, valid contact details within 7 days of making the payment. Notice may be provided by email to fiu@gov.im.
This notification does not constitute verification by the Treasury that activity purported to be permitted under this licence is permitted.
Record-keeping requirements
The entities making payments under this licence must keep accurate, complete and readable records, on paper or electronically, of any activity purporting to have been permitted under this licence for a minimum of 6 years.
General
The permissions in the above General Licence do not authorise any act which the person carrying out the act knows, or has reasonable grounds for suspecting, will result in funds or economic resources being made available in breach of the Russia Regulations, save as permitted under licences granted under The Russia Regulations.
General Licence IOM/2022/RUS006 takes effect in its amended form from the date of issue and expires on 03 April 2023.
Further details of the sanctions regime related to Russia may be found on the Customs and Excise pages of the Isle of Man Government website.
