Russian companies involved in importing goods from China are facing a fresh hurdle in payments. Reports indicate that a number of Chinese banks have begun refunding payments for shipments that had already been delivered to Russian importers. The situation has been described by four entrepreneurs and has drawn attention from several law firms and advisory groups. The accounts suggest a pattern where funds are returned months after the original transfer, even though the goods had been cleared through customs and accepted by the buyers.
Multiple sources confirm the issue. FTL Advisers, SinoRuss, Nordic Star, and the business bank Blank all acknowledge that clients have encountered payment reversals. Additional insight comes from Iskander Mirgalimov, a foreign economic settlement adviser, and one of the payment agents who has observed the problem firsthand. The convergence of these independent voices indicates a non-isolated phenomenon rather than isolated incidents.
One importer described the sequence of events in which a yuan-based payment to a major Chinese bank was refunded three months after the transfer. The goods in question had already cleared Russian customs and were physically in the importer’s possession, yet the funds did not follow the expected path to the seller. In another case, a large bank in China completed an RMB payment only after a protracted period of nearly three months during which the importer continued to operate under the impression that the payment would be finalized. The goods were again received by Russian customs, but the eventual refund still occurred, raising questions about the underlying mechanism and risk controls involved in cross-border settlements. A third account notes a refund that arrived roughly four months after shipment, with the claimant asserting that the payment had been received by the Chinese counterparty despite the later reversal.
A separate entrepreneur chose to reverse the payment altogether after realizing that the supplier in China had not been compensated, though the reasons behind that lapse were not specified. This refund, issued in May for goods already in the importer’s possession at the time, underscores the potential for misalignment between contractual expectations and the actual processing of international payments in these cases. The pattern points to a broader tension in the cross-border trade ecosystem, where timing, banking procedures, and sanctions considerations intersect in complex ways.
Recent regulatory developments on the Russian side have added another layer to the landscape. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has made a notable change by extending the right of non-bank entities to disclose sanctions-sensitive data. This shift could influence how information about cross-border transactions is shared among market participants and may affect risk assessment, compliance monitoring, and decision-making processes for importers and their banks. While the immediate practical impact on individual refunds remains to be fully assessed, observers expect greater transparency and a potential recalibration of internal controls within trading firms and their financial partners. The broader implication is that companies engaged in imports from China may need to reassess their payment routing, verification practices, and contingency plans to mitigate financial exposure amid evolving regulatory signals. (citation: FTL Advisers, SinoRuss, Nordic Star, Blank, Iskander Mirgalimov)