The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) ruled on June 11, 2026, that EU banks may not refuse to open a basic payment account for a consumer solely because the individual appears on a third-country sanctions list, such as the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) list. The ruling was issued in Case C-81/24, Jenec, in proceedings between LH, a natural person, and OTP banka d.d., formerly Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor, concerning the opening of a bank account. The dispute arose after OTP Bank blocked a payment involving LH in 2017, citing stricter anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing (“AML/CTF”) measures that included compliance with OFAC sanctions restrictions, and later refused in practice to open a basic payment account for LH after he requested one on March 23, 2022. The referring court asked whether Article 16(4) of Directive 2014/92 (which governs fees and access to basic payment accounts), when read with Directive 2015/849 (which governs money laundering and terrorist financing prevention), allowed Member States to require banks to refuse a basic payment account solely because the consumer appears on an OFAC list, and also raised related questions under Article 48 of the Charter.
The CJEU held that EU law does not permit Member States to require credit institutions to refuse a basic payment account solely because the consumer is listed by a third country unless the bank has first carried out an individual assessment of the money-laundering or terrorist-financing risk connected with the intended business relationship. Its rationale was that Directive 2014/92 gives legally resident EU consumers a right to open and use a basic payment account, permits refusal only where opening the account would infringe AML/CTF rules, and makes clear that AML/CTF rules may not be used as a pretext for rejecting customers or because compliance checks are burdensome or costly. The Court further reasoned that because Directive 2015/849 is built on an evidence-based, risk-based approach, it follows that an OFAC listing may be a relevant risk factor, but it is not an automatic bar to opening an account; and that enhanced due diligence must follow an individualized assessment of all relevant factors.