BRUSSELS, June 11 - The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Thursday that being placed on a sanctions list maintained by the United States is not, in itself, a legally sufficient ground for an EU bank to refuse to open a basic account for a resident.
The judgment relates to a 2022 decision by a Slovenian lender identified in the court documents as Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor - since acquired by OTP Group - which declined to provide a consumer, referred to only as LH in the ruling, with an account offering basic features. The bank's refusal followed the consumer's inclusion on a sanctions list compiled by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. authority charged with enforcing economic and trade sanctions.
The court emphasized that the consumer in question had not been convicted of the criminal offense that led to their placement on the OFAC list and was not subject to sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the European Union, or Slovenia.
In its decision, the court affirmed that any legal resident of the EU has the right to open and use a basic bank account, but noted that this entitlement is conditional on compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorism financing (FT) rules.
According to the judgment, while inclusion on an OFAC list or a comparable third-country sanctions list may be taken into account as one of the factors when assessing the risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, it cannot serve as an automatic bar to establishing a banking relationship. The court stated:
"the mere inclusion of a customer’s name on the OFAC list, or on any other list of that type drawn up by a third country, does not automatically prohibit a bank from establishing a business relationship with that customer."
The ruling underscores that banks operating in the EU must perform proper, individualized risk assessments under applicable AML/FT rules when considering whether to provide basic banking services. It places the emphasis on a tailored evaluation of risks rather than on blanket reliance on third-country sanctions lists.
Responding to a request for comment, OTP Group said:
"At OTP Bank, we operate in full compliance with applicable legislation and regulatory requirements, including in the area of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/FT), where we implement clearly defined policies, procedures, and control mechanisms. According to the judgment in case C-81/24 banks remain fully obliged to comply with anti-money laundering rules. In principle they must do so through a proper, individualised risk assessment which was already the practice to date,"reflecting the bank group's position on the need to balance compliance obligations with the court's guidance.
The U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This ruling clarifies the limits of relying solely on third-country sanctions lists when financial institutions assess potential customers for basic banking services. It also reinforces the EU legal framework that grants legal residents access to payment services while requiring banks to satisfy AML/FT controls through individualized assessments.