he United States government has enacted broad new financial and travel restrictions against Cuba, reversing key Biden-era policies and prohibiting American banks from hosting accounts for Cuban private business owners. The regulatory amendments, published by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), implement policy directives from President Donald Trump and follow a May 1 executive order targeting entities associated with political repression and national security concerns.
Under the updated Cuban Assets Control Regulations, U.S. financial institutions are no longer authorized to open or maintain bank accounts for qualifying Cuban entrepreneurs, undoing a May 2024 measure meant to foster independent commerce on the island. American banks must now block and report existing funds tied to these accounts unless specific alternative exemptions apply.
Additionally, the Treasury Department eliminated the general authorization for “U-turn” financial transactions, allowing U.S. banks to reject international payments that originate and terminate outside the United States. This decision marks a return to policies from September 2019 that had previously been restored under the Biden administration in May 2024.
The new rules also tighten travel to Cuba by removing general authorizations for group people-to-people educational trips and professional conferences, while narrowing allowable academic activities.
While Washington previously stated that earlier policies aimed to empower independent businesses, private sector consultants note that bank reluctance had already kept participation low prior to the new ban. Oniel Díaz Castellanos, founder of the Cuban business consulting firm Auge, observed that relatively few local entrepreneurs had successfully established U.S. accounts due to compliance fears among financial institutions.
Unlike recent administrative actions that targeted specific individuals and entities—such as sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, state energy firm CUPET, and Banco Exterior de Cuba—Wednesday’s measures fundamentally alter systemic regulatory frameworks governing finance and travel.
The policy shift followed public comments from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who described Cuba as a “failed state in every sense of the word” during an interview on Fox News. Rubio asserted that economic reform in Havana must be accompanied by political freedoms and warned Cuban officials against waiting out the administration’s tenure.
In response, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized the timing and scope of the sanctions on social media platform X. Rodríguez noted that the measures were issued less than 24 hours after Rubio’s statements, arguing that targeting both public and private sectors contradicts Washington’s stated goal of supporting independent Cuban enterprise.
While Havana continues to attribute its economic crisis directly to the U.S. embargo, Washington maintains that Cuba’s political and economic system is responsible and that increased sanction pressure is necessary
