US Declines to Renew Myanmar Bank Sanctions Authorization, Warns of ‘Enforcement’

The U.S. last week said it isn’t renewing a June general license that authorized certain transactions with two Myanmar banks. The State Department on Aug. 4 said it plans to let the license -- which covered U.S.-sanctioned Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank, Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and their subsidiaries -- expire Aug. 5 at 12:01 am. “We will pursue enforcement actions as appropriate,” the agency said.

Both banks were sanctioned by the Treasury Department earlier this year for helping facilitate foreign currency exchanges within the country and transactions between foreign markets and the country’s military, which organized a coup of the government in 2021 (see 2306210017). The State Department last week said the institutions have been “instrumental” in helping the regime procure arms and jet fuel, and access offshore accounts.

With the general license expired, the U.S. will “carefully monitor compliance and scrutinize transactions with an MFTB or MICB nexus to counter evasion or other behavior that contravenes the intent of these designations and U.S. policy,” the State Department said. It added that it will continue to work with allies to “constrain the regime’s ability to exploit the international financial system.”