PEACE Act of 2025

The PEACE Act of 2025 would give the Secretary of the Treasury new authority to curb the use of U.S. financial rails by foreign banks that help fund Russia or Russian energy interests. Specifically, within 180 days of enactment, Treasury would have to issue regulations that prohibit or impose strict conditions on opening or maintaining in the United States a correspondent account or a payable-through account by a foreign financial institution if that institution knowingly provides significant financial services to sanctioned Russian individuals or entities (per various Executive Orders and CAATSA), or to entities involved in the Russian energy sector. The bill imposes penalties for violations, requires a rapid presidential determination about whether major Russian energy companies are covered foreign persons, allows limited waivers, and includes a sunset/termination provision. The overarching goal is to pressure Russia to pursue a peace settlement in Ukraine by tightening financial access to the U.S. financial system for Russian-linked actors. Notes on terms: a “correspondent account” is a bank account that one bank holds for another bank to facilitate international transactions; a “payable-through account” is used by foreign banks to clear payments through a U.S. correspondent bank. The act targets those accounts for banks that are deemed to provide significant services to designated Russian parties, with substantial civil/criminal penalties for noncompliance.