Last week the United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued updates to the list of service providers authorized to provide air, travel and remittance services to Cuba.  The list of these companies can be found here: List of Cuba Service Providers.

Service providers on the list are allowed to provide air, travel, and remittance services to Cuba despite the prohibitions found in the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (“CACR”). Any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction who provides services akin to those of a travel agent must be specifically licensed as a Travel Service Provider prior to providing any of these services. A traveler should not use any travel agent or tour operator in the United States that is not a Travel Service Provider. The same is true for providers of direct flights or vessel voyages.

The same prohibitions are true for Remittance Forwarders. Any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction, other than a depository institution, who seeks to provide services in connection with collecting, forwarding domestically, or transferring internationally authorized remittances must be specifically licensed as a Remittance Forwarder prior to providing any of these services. Depository institutions, as defined in 31 C.F.R. 515.333, are authorized by general license to forward remittances.  To facilitate this, depository institutions are permitted to set up testing arrangements and exchange authenticator keys with Cuban financial institutions to forward authorized remittances. However,  Depository institutions may not open or use direct correspondent accounts with Cuban financial institutions.

There have been a few changes to this list over the past year. OFAC is not only adding service providers, however. They are also revoking service providers’ authorizations.  If you have been using a particular service provider for forwarding of remittances to Cuba or for your travel arrangements, make sure to check the newly updated list first.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC litigation. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 at 202-351-6161 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.