Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000891478-25-000054
Chunk: 938

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 20-F
Chunk 938
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 confidential actions and restrictions, we may from time to time be subject to public supervisory actions in the US.

Anti-Money Laundering and economic sanctions

A major focus of US, UK and EU governmental policy relating to financial institutions is aimed at preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. In the US, the Bank Secrecy Act, as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2021, contains provisions intended to detect and prevent the use of the US financial system for money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, US financial institutions, including US branches and subsidiaries of non-US banks, are required to, among other things, maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) program, verify the identity of clients, identify and verify the beneficial owners of certain legal entity clients, conduct ongoing customer due diligence, monitor for and report suspicious transactions, report on cash transactions exceeding specified thresholds, and respond to requests for information by regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Department of the Treasury and US federal and state bank regulatory agencies, as well as the US Department of Justice, have the authority to impose significant civil money penalties for violations of those requirements. Similar approaches to preventing money laundering exist in the UK and the EU through their own respective competent authorities on anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

There is also scrutiny of compliance with applicable US, UK and EU economic sanctions against certain foreign countries, governments, individuals and entities to counter threats to respective US, UK or EU national security, foreign policy, or the economy. In the US, economic sanctions are administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury. OFAC-administered sanctions take many different forms. For example, sanctions may include: (1) restrictions on US persons’ trade with or investment in a sanctioned country, including prohibitions against direct or indirect imports from and exports to a sanctioned country and prohibitions on US persons engaging in financial transactions relating to, making investments in, or providing investment-related advice or assistance to, a sanctioned country; and (2) blocking of assets of targeted governments or 'specially designated nationals,' by prohibiting transfers of property subject to US jurisdiction,

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| Contents |     | Cross-reference to Form 20-F |     | Consolidated director's report |     | Consolidated financial statements |     | Supplemental information |

including property in the possession or