General licences – IOM/2022/RUS003
General licences – IOM/2022/RUS006
General licences – IOM/2022/RUS011
General licences – IOM/2022/RUS013
The Treasury has the power to issue General Licences for financial and trade sanctions regimes under a number of Regulations.
On 08 April 2022, the Treasury amended the above General Licences 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 licences – IOM/2022/RUS003 allows an IOM credit or financial institution to deal with Sberbank’s funds and make funds available to or for the benefit of Sberbank for the purposes of processing a GBP payment to, from or via:
a) Sberbank
b) a non- IOM credit or financial institution which is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7 of the Russia Regulations) by Sberbank, or
c) an IOM credit or financial institution which is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7 of the Russia Regulations) by Sberbank
for the purpose of making Relevant Energy Products available for use in the Isle of Man.
Relevant Institutions may process GBP payments made in accordance with the permissions above.
This Licence is amended now that Sberbank is subject to an asset freeze under the Regulations, this amendment ensures that the General Licence in respect of energy related payments may continue.
An IOM credit or financial institution 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.
The General Licence expires on 24 June 2022.
General licences – 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 is amended to broaden the actions that can be permitting to include receiving, processing and taking any other action regarding payments, Insolvency Proceedings, services, maintence and fees relating to the IOM Subsidiary. It also extends the expiry date from March 2023 to April 2023.
When payments are made under the above, an IOM subsidiary of VTB 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.
An IOM Subsidiary of VTB making payments under this licence above 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.
The General Licence expires on 3 April 2023.
General licences – IOM/2022/RUS011 allows a Person to provide financial services for the purposes of winding down any derivatives, repurchase, and reverse repurchase transactions entered into prior to 1 March 2022 with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR), the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation (NWF) or the Ministry of Finance (MF). A Person or Relevant Institution can carry out any activity reasonably necessary to effect this.
This licence is amended to extend the entities specified above to include person sets out in the regulations under 18A (d) to (e).
The General Licence expires on 2 May 2022.
General licences – IOM/2022/RUS013 allows for a Person to continue business operations involving the Joint Venture or its Subsidiaries including, but not limited to: Payments to or from the Joint Venture or its Subsidiaries under any obligations or contracts; Payments to or from any third party necessary to the continuation of any obligations or contracts. The Joint Venture is owned by Russian Railways and Stellantis, GEFCO. A Subsidiary is any entity owned or controlled by Russian Railways, including:
• GEFCO UK Ltd
• GEFCO Forwarding UK
• Auto XP Limited
• XP Tech Limited
This licence is amended to permit persons or a relevant institution to process payments or transactions related to the sale and transfer of the Joint Venture’s shares by Russian Railways.
The General Licence expires on 23 May 2022.
General
The permissions in the above General Licences 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.
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.
