Media Release Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959
Sanctions Against Syria and Libya

Number 2011-12
Date

The Reserve Bank of Australia has been directed by the Australian Government to take steps under the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959 to implement new autonomous targeted financial sanctions against Syria and further autonomous targeted financial sanctions against Libya.

The new autonomous financial sanctions against Syria are against certain key persons and entities responsible for, or involved in, human rights abuses. Details of these persons and entities are contained in the attached Syria Annex.

The already existing autonomous targeted financial sanctions against Libya have been expanded to cover additional key persons and entities associated with the Qadhafi regime. These additional persons and entities are listed in Attachment A. The updated Libya Annex now contains a total of 34 persons and 20 entities.

Specific transactions involving the dealing of funds by the order of, on behalf of, or for the benefit of, any person or entity listed in the Syria Annex or the updated Libya Annex are prohibited.

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 As a result, the content of this media release is no longer current and any accompanying annexes and/or attachments have been removed.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

Media Office
Information Department
Reserve Bank of Australia
SYDNEY

Phone: +61 2 9551 9720
Fax: +61 2 9551 8033
E-mail: rbainfo@rba.gov.au