The American rules that reach a Cuba to Australia payment

Australia has no Cuba sanctions regime at all. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade publishes the regimes currently implemented under Australian sanction law, grouped as United Nations Security Council regimes, Australian autonomous regimes, and a set that is both, and Cuba is on none of them. What can nonetheless stop a payment arriving here from Havana is a set of American regulations that neither government is party to, and they attach in two independent ways: through any bank in the chain that is subject to United States jurisdiction, and through who is standing at either end of it.

Key Takeaways

• Cuba does not appear on any of the sanctions regime lists Australia implements.
• The United States Cuban Assets Control Regulations reach payments handled by any banking institution subject to United States jurisdiction, which is how a correspondent bank pulls this corridor into their scope.
• They also reach any dealing in the property by a person subject to that jurisdiction, and that limb has no routing element in it.
• An authorisation for transfers that begin and end outside the United States was removed with effect from 9 October 2019 and reinstated on 29 May 2024, and it holds only where neither end is a person subject to United States jurisdiction.
• That phrase covers any citizen or resident of the United States wherever they are living, so an Australian resident who also holds American citizenship sits outside it.

The prohibition, and what actually connects it to this corridor

The Cuban Assets Control Regulations sit at part 515 of title 31 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations. Section 515.201 sets out the prohibitions, and paragraph (d) of that section names the designated country: for the purposes of the part, the designated foreign country means Cuba, with an effective date of 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on 8 July 1963.

Paragraph (a) reaches transactions by, on behalf of, or at the direction of Cuba or a Cuban national, and separately transactions involving property in which Cuba or a Cuban national has had any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect, at any time since the effective date. On those transactions, paragraph (a)(1) prohibits all transfers of credit and all payments between, by, through, or to any banking institution or banking institutions wheresoever located, with respect to any property subject to the jurisdiction of the United States or by any person, including a banking institution, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

"Wheresoever located" means the geography of the banks is not the test. Being subject to United States jurisdiction is the test, and a United States bank handling a leg of the payment meets it. Section 515.314 treats each principal, agent, home office, branch or correspondent of anyone engaged in the business of banking as a separate banking institution.

Routing is not the only trigger, and this is the part most easily missed. Paragraph (b)(1) prohibits all dealings in, including transfers, withdrawals or exportations of, any property in which Cuba or a Cuban national has an interest, by any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with no routing element in the sentence at all. So there are two questions here rather than one: which institutions touch the payment, and who the two people at either end of it are. The second does not depend on the first.

The authorisation that was taken away and given back

Alongside the prohibitions, part 515 carries general licences that authorise categories of transaction in advance. The one that matters here is section 515.584(d), and its recent history is unusually easy to date because both changes were published in the Federal Register.

The rule published on 9 September 2019, effective 9 October that year, described what it was doing in its own summary: the rule amends the general licence relating to U-turn financial transactions to eliminate the authorisation to process such transactions and instead only allow the rejection of such transactions.

For four and a half years, that was the position. A transfer with a Cuban interest that reached a bank subject to United States jurisdiction was to be sent back.

The rule published on 29 May 2024 reversed it. Under a heading of its own, the Office of Foreign Assets Control recorded that it was amending section 515.584(d) to reinstate an authorisation for U-turn transactions, in order to help the Cuban people, including independent private sector entrepreneurs, by facilitating remittances and payments for authorised transactions in the Cuban private sector.

What the reinstated licence covers, in its current words

The current text of section 515.584(d) is one sentence. Any banking institution, as defined in section 515.314, that is a person subject to United States jurisdiction is authorised to process funds transfers originating and terminating outside the United States, provided that neither the originator nor the beneficiary is a person subject to United States jurisdiction.

The 2024 rule then says what falls outside it, and this is the part worth reading twice. Transactions through the United States financial system that do not meet those criteria, including all transactions where the originator or beneficiary is a person subject to United States jurisdiction, remain prohibited unless otherwise authorised or exempt.

So the licence is not about the amount, the purpose, or the two countries. It is about the status of the two ends.

The definition that decides it

Section 515.329 defines a person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and its four limbs are worth setting out because only one of them is about geography.

Limb (a) is the one that reaches into Australia. The words "wherever located" mean that an American citizen who has lived in Sydney for thirty years is still a person subject to United States jurisdiction for these purposes. A payment from Cuba to that person is therefore outside the reinstated authorisation, even though the money never enters the United States and both parties are sitting outside it.

Limb (d) does the same for entities. An Australian company owned or controlled by American citizens is within the definition, wherever it was incorporated.

What this leaves for somebody expecting money

The corridor has two questions in it, and they are separate. The first is whether the payment touches the United States financial system at all, which is a matter of routing and of the currency the transfer is denominated in, because a United States dollar payment is ordinarily cleared through a correspondent in the United States. That is the correspondent leg an international transfer runs through. The second question is whether either end of the payment is a person subject to United States jurisdiction, which is a matter of citizenship, residence and, for a company, ownership, and which paragraph (b)(1) reaches whatever the route.

Note also that these are United States regulations, and they say nothing about whether an Australian bank will accept the credit. And section 515.584(d) is an authorisation given to the bank, not a right given to the customer. It permits a banking institution to process a transfer; it does not require one to. An institution that declines is making a commercial and compliance decision, and the regulations do not speak to that. Nor do they decide anything on the Cuban side, which is governed separately.

Where to look next

• Receiving money from Cuba - the Cuban peso to Australian dollar corridor page, with the receiving-side detail for this route.
• AUD to CUP - the convert page for the pair, including the central bank's multiple rate segments.
• The 180-day window that took 625 days - how Cuba retired its second currency, and the exchange window that had to be extended three times.
• How international transfers work - the sequence a payment moves through, including the correspondent leg that matters most here.
• Understanding transfer fees - what a transfer costs, and the margin inside a quoted rate.

Sources

• Sanctions regimes currently implemented under Australian sanction law, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - the three groupings, United Nations Security Council regimes, Australian autonomous regimes and a set that is both, and the absence of any Cuba entry from all three. The page carries the Haiti regime under the Security Council grouping.
• 31 CFR 515.201, Transactions involving designated foreign countries or their nationals; effective date - the two limbs of the paragraph (a) chapeau; the prohibition in paragraph (a)(1) on transfers of credit and payments between, by, through or to any banking institution wheresoever located with respect to property subject to United States jurisdiction or by a person subject to it; paragraph (b)(1) prohibiting all dealings in such property by any person subject to United States jurisdiction, with no routing element; paragraph (c) on evasion; and paragraph (d) naming Cuba as the designated foreign country with an effective date of 12:01 a.m. e.s.t. on 8 July 1963.
• 31 CFR 515.584, Certain financial transactions involving Cuba - paragraph (d) as it now stands, authorising a banking institution subject to United States jurisdiction to process funds transfers originating and terminating outside the United States provided neither the originator nor the beneficiary is a person subject to that jurisdiction; paragraph (e) on unblocking previously blocked transfers; and the amendment history, which records both the September 2019 and the May 2024 changes.
• 31 CFR 515.329, Person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States - the four limbs of the definition, including limb (a), any individual wherever located who is a citizen or resident of the United States, and limb (d), any organisation wherever organised or doing business that is owned or controlled by such persons.
• Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 84 FR 47121, 9 September 2019 - the summary describing the amendment to the U-turn general licence to eliminate the authorisation to process such transactions and allow only their rejection, the effective date of 9 October 2019, and the explanatory passage headed Ending U-turn Transactions.
• Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 89 FR 46323, 29 May 2024 - the passage headed U-Turn Transactions, reinstating the authorisation at section 515.584(d), stating the conditions in full, and stating that transactions through the United States financial system that do not meet those criteria, including all transactions where the originator or beneficiary is a person subject to United States jurisdiction, remain prohibited.

General information about how United States sanctions regulations bear on a payment between Cuba and Australia. Whether any particular payment is authorised, and how a given institution will treat it, are questions for that institution and for professional advice. Not financial advice, not legal advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.