US tightens financial and travel restrictions on Cuba

WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The United States has imposed new financial and travel restrictions on Cuba, barring US banks from maintaining certain accounts for Cuban private entrepreneurs and reversing measures introduced by the Biden administration to expand the island’s access to the US financial system.

The new measures also eliminate authorisation for certain international payments involving Cuba to pass through US banks and restrict some categories of educational and professional travel to the island.

The changes to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations took effect Wednesday after the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published the amendments a day earlier.

OFAC said the amendments implement portions of United States President Donald Trump’s Cuba policy and regulations stemming from a May 1 executive order targeting individuals and entities Washington says are responsible for repression in Cuba or pose threats to US national security and foreign policy.

The measures reverse financial openings introduced by the Biden administration in May 2024, when the Treasury Department authorised qualifying Cuban private entrepreneurs to remotely operate US bank accounts, including while physically present in Cuba.

At the time, the Treasury said the authorisation was intended to support Cuba’s independent private sector by expanding access to financial services and facilitating authorised payments and remittances.

Under the new rules, US financial institutions can no longer open or maintain accounts under that authorisation. Existing funds must be blocked and reported to OFAC unless another authorisation applies.

The immediate number of businesses affected could be limited. Oniel Díaz Castellanos, founder of Cuban business consulting firm Auge, said relatively few entrepreneurs had been able to take advantage of the authorisation because many US banks remained reluctant to work with Cuban businesses due to sanctions-compliance concerns.

The regulations also eliminate authorisation for so-called U-turn transactions, which allow certain payments originating and terminating outside the United States to pass through US financial institutions.

Under the new rules, US banks can no longer process qualifying Cuba-related U-turn transactions and are instead authorised to reject them, according to OFAC.

The policy has shifted between administrations. The first Trump administration eliminated U-turn transactions in September 2019, before the Biden administration restored them in May 2024.

Washington has also tightened restrictions on travel to Cuba, eliminating the general authorisation for group people-to-people educational travel and narrowing other categories of educational travel.

Certain academic activities involving accredited US institutions remain authorised under specified conditions.

OFAC also removed the general authorisation for attending or organising certain professional meetings and conferences in Cuba.

The latest measures follow a series of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration since May targeting senior Cuban officials, state-owned companies and financial institutions.

In June, the Treasury sanctioned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials and entities. It later designated state-owned oil and gas company Unión Cuba-Petróleo, known as CUPET.

Additional sanctions followed in August against individuals and entities that the Treasury said were involved in Cuban arms imports and foreign military cooperation.

On September 3, OFAC sanctioned Banco Exterior de Cuba and several companies linked to the country’s petroleum, mining and resource sectors.

Unlike those earlier actions, which largely targeted specific individuals, companies and government entities, the latest measures modify broader US rules governing financial transactions and travel involving Cuba.

The restrictions came a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio intensified the administration’s criticism of Havana.

“The truth is Cuba has already fallen,” Rubio said during an interview earlier this week. He described Cuba as “a failed state in every sense of the word”.