Daily · US Sanctions & Market Regulatory Relief · June 29, 2026

Sanctions and blocked parties

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has updated the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, adding new individuals or entities to its sanctions regime. For businesses, this is a critical operational trigger: all property and interests of these parties subject to U.S. jurisdiction are now blocked. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them. Companies must immediately update their screening lists to avoid severe penalties associated with dealing with sanctioned parties.

Consumer protections and market access

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is reducing the regulatory burden on wholesale financial businesses by narrowing the scope of the Consumer Duty—the set of rules requiring firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. The FCA will now remove genuinely non-UK customers from this scope, provided there is no clear UK link. This allows international wholesale firms to focus their compliance resources on actual retail consumers rather than applying restrictive retail-grade protections to sophisticated professional clients, effectively lowering operational costs for global firms.

In the US, a series of immediate rule changes have been implemented across major exchanges, including Nasdaq, NYSE, and Cboe. These updates primarily establish new fees for connectivity services and amend fee schedules for specific order types. For institutional investors and high-frequency trading firms, these changes directly impact the cost of market access and the technical mechanics of trading during global hours and curb sessions.

Financial supervision and enforcement

Switzerland's regulator, FINMA, has concluded enforcement actions against two institutions and one individual for serious breaches of conduct rules under the Financial Services Act (FinSA), which governs how financial services are provided to clients. The consequences were severe: FINMA withdrew a fund management license, rejected a portfolio manager application, confiscated millions in illegally generated profits, and banned an individual from the industry for several years. This signals a low tolerance for conduct failures in the Swiss fund management sector.

This overview is informational, not legal or compliance advice. Consult your lawyer or compliance specialist on specific decisions.

Sources

This overview is based on official regulator publications for the period: