From June 3, the Russian Raiffeisenbank will stop transfers in euros both within the Russian Federation and to banks in 12 countries. This was reported in the Bank's Telegram channel.
The transfer will not reach if it is sent to one of the following countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, United Arab Emirates, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
It is noted that these conditions apply to both individuals and individual entrepreneurs, as well as legal entities. The bank explains its decision by the restrictions imposed by correspondent banks. At the same time, Raiffeisenbank's Russian clients will be able to make transfers in euros both between their own accounts and between each other's accounts.
Politician and economist Vladimir Milov believes that the introduction of such restrictions is not connected with the EU policy to counter circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions:
It seems to me that this is more likely another step towards curtailing activities in Russia. Yes, as a result, Raiffeisen will leave, there is a lot of pressure on it. This will have a limited impact on parallel imports and circumvention of sanctions, since there are other channels of work – smaller banks that are not disconnected from SWIFT.
In the Russian "Raiffeisen" from June 20, a commission is charged for transfers in dollars to accounts of individuals. It is 50% of the total amount, but should not exceed $500. Also in April, individual clients who were not connected to premium packages lost the opportunity to make SWIFT transfers in dollars. A minimum transfer threshold of 20,000 dollars or euros was also set.