Media Release Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959
Sanctions Against Zimbabwe – Amendment to the Annex

The Reserve Bank of Australia, following a directive from the Australian Government under the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959, currently administers financial sanctions against certain individuals associated with the Government of Zimbabwe. The list of individuals subject to sanctions includes ministers and senior officials of the Government of Zimbabwe, as well as senior management of state-owned enterprises of Zimbabwe.

The Australian Government has reviewed the list of individuals subject to financial sanctions and has directed the Reserve Bank to remove 3 individuals and add 27 new individuals to the Annex of names. Amendments have also been made to 64 entries on the previous list. The updated Annex now contains 183 names.

Any transactions involving the transfer of funds or payments to, by the order of, or on behalf of any person listed in the Annex are prohibited without prior approval from the Reserve Bank.

UPDATE: On 7 March 2012, responsibility for the administration of Australia's autonomous financial sanctions was transferred from the RBA (under the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959) to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) (under the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011).
This change was announced in RBA Media Release No 2012-05. As a result, the content of this media release is no longer current and any accompanying annexes and/or attachments have been removed. For all enquiries about Australia's autonomous financial sanctions regime, including the current list of sanctioned individuals and entities, refer to the DFAT website.

Enquiries

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Reserve Bank of Australia
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Phone: +61 2 9551 9720
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E-mail: rbainfo@rba.gov.au