Licence applications in the event of no-deal

The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA) will enable sanctions to continue uninterrupted when the UK leaves the EU.

Under the new framework, any existing financial sanctions licence issued by the Treasury will remain valid until:

• the date they are replaced by a licence under the new regime

or

• until the expiry date stated on the licence

or

• if they are revoked.

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the following will be the case if applying for a licence or an amendment to an existing licence:

Up to EU Exit

• OFSI will receive applications and amendment requests as normal.

After EU Exit

• If you apply for a new licence or an amendment to an existing licence and the regime is under the new SAMLA SI, you will have to apply for a new licence under the SAMLA regime. The process for applying for a new licence under a SAMLA regime will follow the same format as the current application process. Further guidance will be provided in due course
• If you apply for a new licence or an amendment to an existing licence, and the regime comes under EU retained law (i.e. there is not a SAMLA regime in place yet), amendments and licence applications will continue as they do currently.

There will be differences between EU retained law regimes and SAMLA regimes. To ensure you stay updated on which law applies and when, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office publishes updates.