US sanctions against a number of Russian banks caused a wide resonance. Many have jumped to the conclusion that foreign exchange transactions will be unavailable at almost every major bank. But this is not entirely true.
The sanctioned banks can be roughly divided into three groups:
• Sberbank. As expected, special attention was paid to the largest Russian bank. Sanctions against Sberbank were introduced in accordance with US Presidential Executive Orders No. 13662 and No. 14024. US financial institutions are now prohibited from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for a sanctioned entity, and are also required to reject any transactions unless they are authorized by OFAC. Thus, dollar payments will be unavailable to Sber and its clients.
• VTB, Otkritie, Sovcombank and Novikombank. These banks were subject to blocking sanctions with the freezing of assets in the United States and a ban on working with them for all American organizations. As practice shows, European and British banks also refuse to work with such persons because they are afraid of falling under secondary US sanctions. Access to dollars is closed.
• Alfa, Moscow Credit Bank, Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank and Gazprombank. Despite the fact that the US Senate had drafts of harsh sanctions against Alpha and Fridman and Aven, this did not happen. Alfa and listed banks are restricted from raising new debt and equity starting March 26. US dollars are still available for them.
Thus, only clients of Sberbank, VTB, Otkritie, Sovcombank and Novikombank will be seriously affected.
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