Germany: Bundesbank Monthly Report: Financial sanctions – legal framework and implementation in Germany

With the outbreak of the second Gulf war, the financial sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations in 1990 again became a focus of public attention. On 20 March 2003 the President of the United States ordered the seizure of frozen account balances of various Iraqi public institutions. In Germany the Deutsche Bundesbank asked the banking industry to report all bank accounts, safe custody deposits or other assets belonging to Iraq, official bodies in Iraq or their authorised representatives. In the light of these events, this article gives an overview of the legal framework of the financial sanctions which have been imposed by the United Nations, the European Union or European Community and the national authorities and which currently apply in Germany and an outline of the role played by the Deutsche Bundesbank in their implementation. It also deals with the closure of an existing regulatory gap