Make a transfer now – Make the US blockade of Cuba unenforceable

How can I participate?

All you need is a UK or European bank account. Simply read on and then follow the process in these slides.

Step 1: make a payment

Send an instruction to your bank (via online banking, telephone banking or in branch) to make an international payment of 1c or 1p. You can send it to one of the bank accounts listed on the next step.
Use the payment reference ‘CUBA’.

MediCuba-Europa (Switzerland)

IBAN: CH92 0076 4301 3245 Y000 1
BIC: BSCTCH22LUG
Address:
Banca Dello Stato del Cantone Ticino
Piazza Reforma, 5
Lugano
Switzerland
Organisation address:
Oficina de mediCuba-Europa
c/o Manuela Cattaneo
Via San Bernardino 5
CH-6988 Ponte Tresa (Suiza)
Tel: +41 91 606 17 62

1C4C (United Kingdom)

IBAN: GB35 NWBK 5210 3321 1628 59
BIC: NWBKGB2L
Account Number: 21162859
Sort Code: 52-10-33
Address:
NatWest
250 Bishopsgate
London
EC2M 4AA
Organisation address:
1C4C
c/o BCM Box 5909
Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N 3AX
Tel: +44 3457 888 444

Globalize Solidarity (Belgium)

IBAN: BE44 5230 8068 1645
BIC: TRIONL2U or TRIOBEBBXXX
Address:
Triodos Bank
139-3, Hoogstraat
Brussels
Belgium
Organisation address:
Globalize Solidarity
Chaussee De Haecht
53, 1210 Brussels
Belgium

Tel: +32 02 209 23 50

Make sure your payment is to an account which is outside your country. For example, if you are in Britain you can send it to MediCuba-Europa in Switzerland. To avoid a transaction fee, you may need to send it within the European Economic Area (EEA). Switzerland is outside the EEA.
Alternatively, send your payment to a friend or family abroad.

What to do if the bank contacts you

You may receive a phone call from the bank’s review team asking for the purpose and destination of the payment. Ask why they are reviewing the payment.
You can add that the group you are sending money to is an organisation that raises money to send medical aid to Cuba, and this is a cause you want to support.
Request a record of any telephone conversation you have with the bank at the end of each phone call.

Did the payment go through?

“YES”
If it appears that the payment has gone through, start step 1 again using multiple transactions at once (for example, 10 separate payments of 1c/1p) until you trigger a sanctions review process. Try the other bank accounts if your transactions are not stopped.
When you make an international payment, your bank will often issue a remittance advice (confirmation message) if your payment went through. Check the messages on your online banking or ask the bank directly whether the payment has been processed.

Did the payment go through?

“NO”
If the bank rejects the payment, or it isn’t received after five days, you need to begin a complaints process. Read the next slide to see how this works.

Step 2: complain to the bank

If the bank rejects your payment, you may receive a telephone call explaining why they rejected it. This is when you get the opportunity to make your protest against the inhumanity of the US sanctions and expose your bank’s collusion in genocide.
First Response:
Firstly, you ask the bank for a written explanation for why the transfer was not provided. You must ask for this in writing. The bank will provide casual, partial or misleading information: do not accept this. Insist on a full description of the reason the transaction failed. Give them one chance to do this. And limit this to 5 working days. The suggested text is as follows:
Thank you for your <email/text/message> of <Date>. I must insist on a written explanation of your reason(s) to refuse to make the transfer I instructed, in accordance with your duties as a regulated banking services provider. I request that this explanation be provided within five(5) working days from the date of this email, in default of which I will bring the matter to the attention of the Financial Services Ombudsman.

Write to the bank’s complaints department by email or letter. You should be able to find the address on their website.

Second Response:
Even if the explanation is perfect (it won’t be), the next response is:
Thank you for your explanation of the reasons for the failure of my transaction. I am not willing to accept this and ask that the internal complaints process be initiated to provide me with a full written legal basis for the failure to make the transfer in accordance with the relevant <European/UK> Banking Regulations. Please confirm in writing when you have initiated this complaints process and within five working days of this email, at the latest.

Step 3: The bank account review team

Your first letter of complaint should be general: start by complaining that the reason they gave for delay/rejection is not adequate; that Cuba is not on any UK or European sanctions list; and that the US blockade of Cuba does not apply to banks outside the United States. Ask for a reply within five working days.
You can use the template letter of complaint #1 in the resources section of this website.

If the bank replies, regardless of the reasons they provide, or if they fail to reply within five working days, you should write back complaining that they are breaking the law and that your transaction should not have been subject to any delay or rejection.
Cite the relevant UK and European laws that counteract the US blockade. Warn that you will complain to a financial regulator if no satisfying response is given.
You can use the template letter of complaint #2 in the resources section of this website.

Did it work?

If the bank apologises, offers you compensation or claims that there was a mistake, ask them to put it in writing. Demand that they proceed with the original payment.
If they tell you to make the payment again, go back to step 1.
Use letter #3 in the same folder as this presentation to demand that the payment goes through.

If you are offered compensation, we encourage you to accept this and donate it to the #1c4Cuba local campaign in your country.
The details for campaigns in Britain, Ireland and Belgium are below. We hope that groups in other countries will sign up too.
You can also donate it to a legitimate fund for material aid for Cuba.
Britain: ratb.org.uk
Belgium: Cubanismo.be
Ireland: cubasupport.ie
See the #1c4Cuba website for details of groups in other regions.

Step 4: Tell us so we can log the transaction and support the complaint

Whether or not the bank continues to reject your transactions, we ask you to submit information about your complaints process to the central #1c4Cuba campaign email.
We will use this information to help coordinate legal challenges in each country via the relevant authorities.
Email: [email protected]

Everytime you make a transaction or a complaint- SHARE on social media with hashtag #1c4cuba

Step 5: Escalate the complaint to your national financial regulator

This is really important – once your complaints process with the bank has been exhausted – complain to your independent national financial regulator. If you are not sure who this is – contact us

See links below

Financial regulators Links

Britain
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
How to complain (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)

Ireland
The Central Bank of Ireland – Complaints against a Financial Service Provider | Central Bank of Ireland
The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman – how-to-make-a-complaint-to-the-fspo

Germany
Federal Financial Supervisory Authority – BaFin – Homepage