At Raiffeisenbank, the light of the client did not converge

Raiffeisenbank will temporarily focus on servicing the transactions of current clients, suspending the opening of accounts for new corporate clients. The influx of companies into the bank can be explained by the opportunity to conduct transactions in dollars and euros in the face of the introduction of tough sanctions by the US and European countries against large private banks. At the same time, smaller banks also provide services for cross-border settlements, the role of which in this business will increase.

On Friday, March 3, one of the largest Russian banks – Raiffeisenbank (a subsidiary of the Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International, RBI) stopped opening accounts for new corporate clients, follows from the statement of the credit institution. This applies to both ruble and foreign currency accounts, but the decision is temporary, the bank noted. Existing clients are temporarily unable to open an account in foreign currency. This is due “to a large number of new applications for opening accounts,” the bank explains. “In the context of increased requirements, including for checks and currency payments by correspondent banks,” the bank will process the volume of transactions from existing customers, and it also intends to ensure the execution of their currency payments “in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation and banking practice” .

A new influx of clients was provoked by the expansion of sanctions lists against Russian credit institutions by the UK, the US and the EU (see “Kommersant” of February 24-25). Previously, the ability to conduct dollar transactions due to the fact that the American JP Morgan Chase Bank and Bank of New York Mellon unilaterally severed correspondent relations with it was lost by Gazprombank (see “Kommersant” dated January 25).

But it was not only Raiffeisenbank that faced the growth of applications for opening new accounts (mainly for cross-border settlements).

For example, formally, as follows from the response of the customer support service of the systemically important Unicredit Bank, it also opens both ruble and foreign currency settlement accounts for new corporate clients. However, this is not easy to do – on the banki.ru forum you can find complaints about lengthy consideration and lack of response to applications for opening an account. Speaking the day before at a meeting of credit institutions with the Bank of Russia, organized by the Association of Banks of Russia (ADB), the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that under the sanctions, the role of small banks is increasing. According to a Kommersant survey, new corporate clients have recently turned to small banks with a wide corset.

Raiffeisenbank’s decision is most likely “a point case caused by an objective reason,” says ADB Vice President Alexei Voylukov. “It is quite possible that there is simply not enough staff,” he does not exclude. After all, it is necessary to consult, and collect and check all documents, compliance control of operations. Therefore, in this case, “either immediately chase the quantity and worsen the service for existing customers by orders of magnitude, or introduce temporary restrictions until the bank prepares for the changed volumes of work,” says Mr. Voylukov.

If there really are no technical possibilities for opening an account, then the actions of the bank are legal, if they arbitrarily limit the opening of accounts, then no, explained Polina Vizgina, lawyer at Gurichev, Malinin and Partners Law Firm.

According to Art. 846 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the bank is obliged to open an account on the conditions declared by it, she says. “According to the same article, a bank may refuse to open an account only if the bank does not have the ability to accept banking services or such a refusal to open an account is allowed by law,” the lawyer comments. The second category of refusals includes cases where the client’s account operations are suspended by the decision of the tax authority or there is reason to believe that the account is needed in order to launder proceeds from crime, she explains. At the same time, the bank’s refusal “may be challenged by the rejected client in court, in which case the credit institution will have to prove the impossibility of opening another account,” the lawyer notes. Raiffeisenbank declined to comment further.

Olga Sherunkova