The financial sector is perhaps one of the most globalized, since transactions between countries are increasingly frequent, not only in the business world, but also due to family remittances, investments, and electronic commerce.
For this reason, all banks follow international parameters on issues such as the prevention of money laundering or regarding warnings such as those established by the so-called Clinton List.
Banks that do not comply with these standards may be sanctioned and excluded from the international financial system. For this reason, as soon as it became known that the United States government had decided to include President Gustavo Petro, members of his family, and the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, on the OFAC list, the first union to react was the one that represents credit institutions."The sector reiterates its commitment to compliance with international standards. At the same time, it will continue to act in accordance with the rights of financial consumers, local regulations, and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court," Asobancaria stated in a statement.
The doubt that arises in this situation is that, if local banks must comply with external regulations, they would also have to block the accounts held in the country by Petro, his wife Verónica Alcocer,his son Nicolás and Minister Benedetti, and the answer is not very clear.
A former Treasury official stated that, if local banks don't block them, they're the ones who would be blocked abroad. "Now, to be frank, I don't think they have many products in the Colombian financial system. They probably do in Europe, but the same thing happens to banks there, too; they have to block them."
Another source in the sector said that any decision taken is not immediate, but rather must go through a process, while a bank lawyer explained that knowing whether the banks will freeze the Petro and Benedetti accounts is a legal impossibility, since it would violate banking confidentiality and that can only be determined by a judge.
However, there is another issue under consideration, and that is that access to the financial system is an essential service and, therefore, the president, his son, his wife, and his Minister of the Interior could not be blocked from performing operations within the country, such as receiving payroll payments or making payments at establishments within Colombia.
“What is clear is that they will not be able to use their debit or credit cards abroad and that doesn’t just mean travel, but also, for example, paying for a purchase on Amazon, a Netflix or Spotify subscription,” said the lawyer, adding that although the issue is just being developed so that those affected know what they can and cannot do, the “truth is that they are the first, since what is rumored is that the list is going to be longer.”
