US tightens financial and travel restrictions on Cuba

WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The United States has imposed new financial and travel restrictions on Cuba, barring US banks from maintaining certain accounts for Cuban private entrepreneurs and reversing measures introduced by the Biden administration to expand the island’s access to the US financial system. The new measures also eliminate authorisation for certain international payments involving Cuba to pass through US banks and restrict some categories of educational and professional travel to the island. The changes to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations took effect Wednesday after the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published the amendments a day earlier.

OFAC said the amendments implement portions of United States President Donald Trump’s Cuba policy and regulations stemming from a May 1 executive order targeting individuals and entities Washington says are responsible for repression in Cuba or pose threats to US national security and foreign policy. The measures reverse financial openings introduced by the Biden administration in May 2024, when the Treasury Department authorised qualifying Cuban private entrepreneurs to remotely operate US bank accounts, including while physically present in Cuba. At the time, the Treasury said the authorisation was intended to support Cuba’s independent private sector by expanding access to financial services and facilitating authorised payments and remittances.

Under the new rules, US financial institutions can no longer open or maintain accounts under that authorisation. Existing funds must be blocked and reported to OFAC unless another authorisation applies. The immediate number of businesses affected could be limited.

Oniel Díaz Castellanos, founder of Cuban business consulting firm Auge, said relatively few entrepreneurs had been able to take advantage of the authorisation because many US banks remained reluctant to work with Cuban businesses due to sanctions-compliance concerns. The regulations also eliminate authorisation for so-called U-turn transactions, which allow certain payments originating and terminating outside the United States to pass through US financial institutions. Under the new rules, US banks can no longer process qualifying Cuba-related U-turn transactions and are instead authorised to reject them, according to OFAC.

The policy has shifted between administr…