By Anthony Marcus, correspondent. Eurasia Business News, August 16, 2024. Article n°1174.
Raiffeisenbank will stop outgoing cross-border transfers in foreign currency from September 2. The owner of Raiffeisen Bank International has imposed a restriction in connection with the order of the European Central Bank (ECB), the press service of the Bank reported.
Now Raiffeisenbank conducts money transfers in euros, yuan, francs, yen, tenge, and drams to foreign banks. It will end on August 30.
Outgoing cross-border transfers in foreign currency will become unavailable to all clients of the bank, except for “a limited number of corporate clients in the field of large and international business”. The changes do not apply to cross-border transfers in rubles. In the next two weeks, the bank “will focus on intensive processing of cross-border payments.”
“Over the past two years, correspondent banks have consistently tightened verification procedures, reduced limits on the number of outgoing transfers. We are constantly adapting to meet changing requirements and at the same time maintain the possibility of such transfers for our customers,” the bank said in a statement.
In early June, the ECB issued an RBI order, according to which the Austrian group should reduce the loan portfolio in Russia by 65% by 2026. In this regard, the Russian branch began to reduce the volume of lending.
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In May, Raiffeisen bank announced that after June 10, cross-border transfers in US dollars will stop working. The decision was made against the background of the ECB’s order to reduce business in Russia.
In March 2023, the European Central Bank (ECB) demanded that the RBI close its business in Russia. The United States threatened Raiffeisen with disconnection from the American financial system. According to Reuters, the ECB and Austria are increasing pressure on the RBI. Raiffeisen CEO Johann Strobl promised that the company would begin to reduce business in Russia in the third quarter of 2024. However, experts are confident that Raiffeisenbank does not seek to leave the Russian Federation.
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) operates in Russia through its subsidiary AO Raiffeisenbank, which is a systemically important bank in Russia headquartered in Moscow.
In 2022, Raiffeisenbank received 141 billion rubles in net profit – four times more than a year earlier (38.7 billion rubles), taking second place after Sberbank.
Raiffeisen, UniCredit, and Citi hold the largest amounts of assets among foreign banks in Russia.
In terms of net profit volume in 2022, Raiffeisen Bank ($2,014 million), UniCredit Bank ($807 million), and Citibank ($329 million) were the top 3 foreign banks in Russia.
In the first half of 2024, Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI) profit in Russia after tax increased by 2.8% year-on-year to €705 million.
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© Copyright 2024 – Eurasia Business News. Article No. 1174
