BankingCuba to lose its U.S. banking service today

Today (Monday) Cuba’s bank in the United States, Buffalo-based M&T Bank, will stop accepting Cuba’s deposits. One result will be that travel between Cuba and the United States will become more difficult because banking services are necessary for issuing travel visas. Cuba’s diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C. has been unable to find an American bank to handle the country’s U.S.-based accounts.

M&T Bank has handled the accounts of the Cuban Interests Section and the Cuban Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York for many years, but last year M&T decided it would terminate its banking services to Cuba.

The Tampa Tribune reports that M&T is expected to close Cuba’s accounts on 1 March 2014. The accounts hold deposits for Cuban fees for visas, passports, and other services.

“In spite of the huge efforts made, as a result of the restrictions in force, derived from the policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade by the U.S. government against Cuba, it has been impossible for the Interests Section to find a U.S.-based bank that could operate the bank accounts of the Cuban diplomatic missions,” the Cuban Interests Section said in a statement.

The United States government requires banks to adhere to rigorous screenings, record-keeping, and reporting requirements when dealing with nations on the U.S. terrorist list. “It’s a hassle for the banks,” said Representative Kathy Castor D-Florida), who favors removing Cuba from the terrorism-sponsor list. “Banks would prefer to not do that extra work.”

Cubais on the U.S. list of nations sponsoring terrorism, along with Syria, Iran, and the Sudan.. Advocates of normalizing relations with Cuba insist that Cuba does not belong on the list. The United States placed Cuba on the terrorism sponsor list in 1982 for supporting the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a communist group with links to the Colombian drug trade which has been at war with the Colombian government since the 1960s.

Cuba also used to provide safe haven for militants from the Spanish terrorist group Basque Fatherland and Liberty, known by its Spanish acronym ETA, but observers note that this has not been the case in years. The State Department’s 2010 Terrorism Overview notes that Cuba was providing Spain’s law enforcement access to the island to investigate ETA members. The Department’s 2012 Terrorism Overview reported that Cuba was distancing itself from the ETA.

TheTribune notes that the State Department says that one reason Cuba remains on the list is due to Cuba’s sheltering of fugitives from the U.S. Justice Department. Robert Muse, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who specializes in legal issues related to the trade embargo on Cuba, says the acts committed by American fugitives in Cuba are “deplorable and reprehensible,” but that these acts were not act of terrorism.

He says that it is “invalid as a matter of law” to classify crimes as terrorism.

Those who oppose normalizing relations with Cuba refer to the 2013 seizure, in the Panama Canal, of a Cuban vessel destined for North Korea. The vessel contained Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets hidden under sacks of sugar. The United Nations prohibits countries from providing weapons to North Korea. North Korea insists it was going to refurbish the arms for Cuba. North Korea is not on the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors.

The U.S. State Department has been working since the summer of 2013 to identify a new bank to provide services to the Cuban missions in the United States. The State Department reached out to more than fifty banks, but none has agreed to extend banking services to Cuban interests.

“It would be nice if a Cuban-American banker would step up to the plate and help the community with this,’’ said Vivian Mannerud, whose company, Airline Brokers, sells tickets and makes arrangements for trips to Cuba.