Sources in Sudan and the United States believe American officials may roll back sanctions against the North African country, which has been subject to a comprehensive U.S. trade embargo for nearly 20 years.
For nearly 20 years, U.S. sanctions have stymied Sudan's economic growth while doing little to stop savvy bankers from doing business in the country, according to Bader Eldin Mahmmoud Abbas Mukhtar, the country's minister of finance and national economy.
A law enforcement and regulatory probe into potential sanctions violations by BNP Paribas centers on transactions tied to Sudan, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the matter.
High-profile sanctions cases are spurring large banks and third-party software vendors to improve how they identify when counterparts and clients secretly act on behalf of blacklisted entities, say compliance experts.
After a busy year for federal sanctions officials, large banks with international footprints are increasingly instituting deeper, standalone audits of their related policies and procedures, say compliance officers and consultants.
The U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions enforcement arm has been increasingly looking at the compliance programs of banks that confuse transactional rejection and blocking orders, an official said Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury Department has accelerated efforts to remove qualified individuals and entities from its list of Specially Designated Nationals, according to the list's chief administrator.
Eager to lure new foreign investments, the world's newest nation still faces an uphill battle against the economic sanctions it technically freed itself from in July, say analysts.