OFAC FAQ (Current) # 393 - Ukraine-/Russia-related Sanctions

Date issued: Nov. 28 2017

TURBOFAC Commentary (171 words)

Notes:

1) OFAC appears to refer to derivatives contracts with SSI entities being the counterparties to the contracts themselves, e.g. SSI banks, rather than transactions particularly likely to involve a prohibited underlying asset falling within the scope of one of the directives.

2) The logic here may be that, while a holder of a derivatives contract has a form of credit exposure to the counterparty of the contract much in the way that a holder of debt has credit exposure to the debtor, that credit exposure is not itself a discrete asset on the debtholders' books. Compare accounts receivable, which are considered "new debt" if they are outstanding 60 days past their initial creation and their creation comes after the owing party is designated pursuant to the relevant directive.

One can quantify and hedge counterparty risk of the sort described here, but not sell it or otherwise assign a value to it.

* See generally General Note on the Prohibitions on Dealings in “New Debt” of Certain Sanctions Targets (System Ed. Note)