OFAC final rule amends Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) — restores U-turn transactions, broadens 'independent private sector entrepreneur' definition, authorizes US bank accounts for Cuban entrepreneurs (FR Doc 2024-11618)

Mechanism

This final rule operationalises elements of the Biden administration's 16 May 2022 policy announcement easing the Trump-era CACR tightening that had been carried over from the 2017 "NSPM-5" reversal of Obama's 2015-16 normalisation. Three substantive strands matter for compliance:

1. U-turn revival — From 2009 to 2020 OFAC had authorised "U-turn" funds transfers (origin + termination outside the US, both non-US persons) under the general license at 31 CFR § 515.584(d). Trump's Sept 2019 amendment scrubbed it; this rule restores it. That re-opens US correspondent banking as plumbing for third-country remittances and authorised private-sector payments to Cuba.

2. "Independent private sector entrepreneur" definition — The prior CACR text used "self-employed individual," tracking the narrow Cuban legal category of cuentapropistas. The new term captures any Cuban private business with up to 100 employees, including the post-2021 MIPYME (micro/small/medium enterprise) legal form and private cooperatives. That widens the universe of counterparties for whom US persons can transact without specific license.

3. Direct banking access for Cuban entrepreneurs — Cuban nationals located in Cuba and operating in the private sector are authorised to open and operate accounts at US financial institutions (including via online and mobile banking) for purposes of conducting authorised transactions. Previously this required residence outside Cuba.

Downstream implications

• Severity is low (2/5) — this is a perimeter-loosening

regulatory action against a small and structurally isolated economy. Material flow-volume impact is bounded by the size of the Cuban private sector (a few hundred thousand MIPYMEs, mostly small service-sector businesses) and by Cuba's residual non-CACR constraints (sponsor-of-terrorism re-designation in Jan 2021, Helms-Burton title-III private-right-of-action active since 2019, generalised payment-clearing chill).

• **Compliance-architecture significance is higher than headline

severity** — US banks acquired a clear OFAC pathway to handle Cuban-private-sector U-turn flows and direct accounts, reducing legal risk for fintech / remittance corridors (Western Union, Wise, Xoom) and for US trade with Cuban MIPYMEs in agricultural inputs and medical supplies.

• Reversed under 2026 administration — The downstream Trump-era

Cuba architecture (EO 14380 secondary-tariff authority on Cuba's oil suppliers, Jan 2026; EO 14404 sectoral blocking sanctions on Cuba's military-controlled tourism and remittance conglomerates, May 2026) operates ON TOP of the still-formally-in-force CACR amendments — but in practice the chilling effect on US banks of the new IEEPA national emergency and SDN designations is expected to neutralise much of the 2024 U-turn / bank-account authorisation. Watch for a follow-on OFAC rule revoking these provisions if the 2026 Cuba sanctions tightening continues.

Open questions

• Whether OFAC under the 2026 administration will issue a rescinding

rule that explicitly removes the U-turn authorisation and the Cuban-resident bank-account authorisation, or whether it will leave the CACR text in place and rely on the chilling effect of the EO 14380 / 14404 architecture.

• Empirical takeup: how many Cuban MIPYMEs have actually opened US

bank accounts under this authorisation since May 2024, and what volume of U-turn transactions ran through US banks before the Jan 2026 EO 14380. (No public OFAC reporting on this exists.)