Russians - to exit: why world banks do not want to serve customers from the Russian Federation
"They want money, so they continue to work, and governments do not want to restrict them. For more than a year, pressure is insufficient," - said the director of the Center for Economic Strategy Gleb Vyshlinsky. Those foreign banks that still close the accounts to the Russians do so for reputational reasons-do not want to deal with the terrorist country. The Swiss Julius Baer is indicative in this context.
The Bank recently sent letters to Russian clients with a notice of termination of agreements from 2024. "Since Switzerland is a country that is in the Western world, it is not very profitable to look ally of Russia moving to the status of a country that can be recognized as a country of terrorism. In this context, any cooperation with a country that at one point It can be recognized as such, will have a negative impact on the image of any bank in the Western countries.
In order not to have questions about why you cooperate with a country with a sponsor of terrorism, they are already trying to minimize these contact National Institute for Strategic Studies Ivan Us. Moreover, the West is feared that the Kremlin can expropriate foreign assets of citizens. "The Russian economy has changed the status from the surplus to the deficit," continues the US.
Attempts will sooner or later lead to the fact that the Russian authorities will not be interested in who these banks belong. " The Russians try to adapt to sanctions. "The Russians are looking for different loops of bypass, using banks in other countries that do not comply with sanctions. Sanctions are not 100% effective: there are options, there are routes, how they can be bypassed. This applies to the banking sector," - said the international economy expert Alexander Alexander. Shnirkov.
In the absence of direct government prohibitions, some banks, including Austrian, continue to serve Russians. However, other respectable financial institutions want to deal with them. Some foreign banks fear that the Russian top to continue the war in Ukraine expropriates the funds of Russians "for example, Raiffeisen is a parent company. There were statements of both the European Central Bank and the regulatory body of Austria, that this bank should be released from Russia as soon as possible.
For example, U. S. Department of the Treasury pay attention to this and block the correspondence of this bank with their countries. Or put increased risk in their scoring systems. And when the banks that interact with Russia see that it creates a problem for them, then they come out for them ", - explained Case Ukraine banking surveillance expert Yevgeny Dubogriz.
However, increasing the sanction pressure in one way or more will be pushed by more Western (and even Asian) financial institutions to say goodbye to Russian clients. "The dynamics of increasing sanction pressure, among other things, is set to send a permanent signal to all financial institutions in the EU or countries of the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) that sanctions are growing dynamically," Ivan summarized.
We will remind, more and more countries of the world impose their sanctions against Russia and Belarus, which supports the aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. Yes, new Zealand has recently made a statement about the introduction of new restrictions, which in particular concern several Belarusian banks. Focus also wrote that on July 20, the United Kingdom abolished personal sanctions imposed on the Russian businessman and founder of Tinkoff Bank Oleg Tinkova.