US Treasury 2 November extended There were 200 Russian companies on the list of anti-Russian sanctions lists, called the SDN list or, more simply, the “black list”. This means those on the list will be effectively cut off from the dollar system.
The list included:
- absolute bank,
- “Home Bank”
- “Pochta Bank”
- All-Russian Regional Development Bank,
- Russian Standard Bank”,
- “Regional Bank of Russia”
- “Empty Bank”
Sanctions also include St. It also affected the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, subsidiaries of Gazprom Neft, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the Cybernetics and Automation Research Center, the Arctic LNG 2 project and AFK Sistema.
“It should not be perceived as a surprise that individual Russian financial institutions have fallen under the latest sanctions; after more than a year and a half of US sanctions policy, this is quite natural,” said Konstantin Kharchenko, an associate professor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. and the Municipal Administration of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Reaction of Russian banks
Pochta Bank stated that the sanctions will not affect its operations and will not affect its customers.
“The bank operates in Russia and focuses on serving customers within the country. The network has about 25 thousand points in all regions, including remote areas. The bank will continue to operate as usual,” reads the message the bank received to socialbites.ca.
In the press service of the institution, it was stated that all customer accounts are still active and the money deposited in the bank can be used both in branches and through internet and mobile banking. They can still be fully used on the territory of the Russian Federation.
“All bank cards, including foreign payment systems, continue to work in stores and ATMs throughout Russia. Pochta Bank reported that all service points, ATMs and bank terminals, as well as the mobile application, continue to operate normally.
Russian Standard services are also working as usual, as evidenced by the credit institution’s message on its website. Web site:
“As always, bank cards of all payment systems in Russia work, transfers are by phone number and by card number.”
The All-Russian Regional Development Bank (RRDB) and Blank Bank assured that the sanctions will not affect the operation of services. At the same time, Pochta Bank, Russian Standard and RRDB announced that the US restrictions would affect the use of debit cards abroad, including UnionPay cards.
While Russian Standard recommended that customers currently abroad withdraw cash from the card, it added that the commission for withdrawing cash from abroad will be refunded on November 2-3 and the UnionPay card will continue to work in Russia.
The credit institution also pointed out that Mir payment system cards work both in stores and in some banks’ ATMs in some foreign countries.
What threatens bank customers
Maxim Osadchiy, head of the analytics department of BKF bank, explained that customers of sanctioned credit institutions must download mobile applications of banks and update them to the latest version. They may disappear from app stores in the near future.
socialbites.ca discovered that the applications of all listed banks are still available on Google Play and the App Store, except for the Regional Bank of Russia (which does not have a mobile application) and RRDB (which does not have an iPhone application).
Another consequence of the imposition of American sanctions will be that it will become impossible to withdraw money from Russia through banks subject to restrictions.
“Being included in the SDN list means that for these organizations, dollar transactions and working via SWIFT are prohibited. However, due to previous sanctions, major Russian banks have already been blocked from accessing these tools. The introduction of new US sanctions against Russian banks and the stock market will certainly create additional difficulties in their work, but it is unlikely to lead to fatal consequences. BitRiver financial analyst Vladislav Antonov commented on the new restrictions: Large banks such as Alfa-Bank, Sberbank and others have already passed the sanctions path.
According to him, the seven banks that had just come under sanctions were ready for such events.
Antonov listed three problems that customers of sanctioned banks will face as follows: “The main problem for the customers of these banks will be not being able to use cards abroad. “It will also become more difficult to service cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions.”
What threatens change customers
St. The St. Petersburg Stock Exchange (SPB Stock Exchange) has currently suspended trading in foreign shares and plans to resume on November 6. USA’s St. They stated that their sanctions against the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange would not affect customer assets (e.g. stocks).
At the same time, US stocks account for a significant part of the trading platform’s turnover. According to the exchange itself, the trading volume in foreign securities at the end of September 2023 amounted to $ 2.42 billion.
According to Antonov, holders of American shares must sell them before January 31, 2024; Russian securities will not be blocked before this date. They can then be frozen in the client’s broker account, meaning nothing can be done with them.
Dividends (a percentage of company profits) may be officially accrued on American shares, but it will not be possible to receive money. Additionally, it will not be possible to sell the papers.
Konstantin Kharchenko, associate professor at the Department of State and Municipal Administration at the University of Finance under the Government of the Russian Federation, admitted that now Russian investors will buy American shares on the stock exchange at prices below market prices. He warned Russians against buying such securities because of the risks:
“The new US measures are the continuation of the pressure on Russia. The most important thing for customers now is not to panic. Bank deposits are still reliably protected by state guarantees. And the stock market will operate one way or another, taking into account changing conditions.”