US Treasury Lifts Sanctions Against CBZ Holdings

Attorney Rebecca Gaskin Gain is an independent non-executive director of CBZ Holdings in Zimbabwe. In this role, Rebecca Gaskin Gain sits on the board of directors and has been instrumental in establishing the company as the premier financial institution in the country.

In the middle of reinventing itself, CBZ Holdings received good news late this summer when $385 million in sanctions against it were lifted. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) penalized the bank in 2017 for processing transactions from a local lender that had already been sanctioned.

In 2008, OFAC placed sanctions on ZB Bank that were removed in 2016. However, OFAC had discovered that CBZ Holdings had participated in non-transparent payment transactions with the bank to or through the US during this time-in violation of these sanctions.

In late August, CBZ Holdings received a letter lifting the sanctions and removing any penalties. However, the letter did warn the financial institution against processing transactions in violation of the OFAC sanctions program.

The decision removes a black cloud that covered the institution. The fine itself was twice the value of the bank’s assets and market capitalization. In addition, this sanction has interfered with the institution being able to access lines of credit, completing regional and global transactions, and serving customers.