The Russian branch of "Raifeisenbank International" will not carry out outgoing transfers in euros for private customers from the beginning of September, the Austrian news agency APA reported today. The specialized blog "MarketOverview" this morning published a response to this from the bank's customer service department, and the Russian business newspaper RBK also reported this information. The RBI announced the move to "minimize risk in Russia" at the end of July when presenting the balance sheet for the first half of 2024
"From September 2, "Raifeisenbank" (Russia, note APA) will no longer be able to carry out any outgoing transfers in foreign currency for private customers, "MarketOverview". The restriction was made in coordination with "RBI Group" in connection with a requirement of the European Central Bank, it says. Originally on the official website of "Raifeisen Russia" today there was no official information about this step.
Affected by Vienna's decision will be not only outgoing transfers in euros, but also, most likely, operations in Chinese yuan, Kazakh tenge and Armenian dram. Outgoing dollar transfers have been banned since June 10, 2024. From spring 2023, the RBI's Russian branch made transfers to Western countries more difficult and successively raised the minimum transfer amount for private clients abroad to €20,000.
In this way, the bank has ceased to be attractive and no longer offers products under real market conditions, comments the blog "MarketOverview". The only thing that could still be of interest to the bank's private customers are transfers in euros from abroad to Russia, which cost only 500 rubles (5.1 euros) plus 75 euros at the RBI correspondent bank.
However, corporate clients are likely to continue to be interested in the bank's services. "Large and internationally active companies" they should still be able to process overseas transfers through "Raiffeisen-Russia" after prior approval, according to the recent RBI balance sheet presentation for the first half of the year. Exceptions are companies trading in electrical appliances, cars, oil and oil products, and wood. According to the presentation from the end of July, there are no transfers in these sectors from 2023.