How tougher conditions will affect Russian business in Dubai
[ad_1]
Russian business in the United Arab Emirates is facing new problems. This time, clients of one of the largest banks in Dubai, Emirates NBD, suffered. According to The Wall Street Journal, the credit institution began closing some companies’ accounts and blocking transactions. In addition, the financial structure stopped accepting ruble transfers. According to media reports, this decision affected not only individual entrepreneurs; the oil industry was under attack. How big are the consequences for business? Ivan Khorushevsky sorted it out.
Emirates NDB is not just one of the main banks in Dubai. According to The Wall Street Journal, he specialized in large transactions with Russian businesses. For this purpose, the credit institution even opened a separate division.
But in the end it was liquidated. At the same time, the financial organization began to block the accounts of Russian entrepreneurs and legal entities. According to the American publication, the assets of Ivan Tavrin – Coral Energy, through which Moscow allegedly exports oil, as well as Uralkali – came under attack.
The company itself denied this information. However, the founder of the SwapMap service, a businessman from Dubai, Georgy Kozhukhovsky, confirmed to Kommersant FM that there are problems with the bank: “Now opening an account can take months. For our new company, we submitted an application to NBD Bank.
Despite the fact that we have a deposit of 250 thousand dirhams, we have been waiting since January, and the account has not yet been opened. Some friends say that their account was even closed because they didn’t like something about transfers or transactions.”
Russian companies kept considerable sums in their accounts; the average size of balances was estimated by the media at $5 million. There is an opportunity to save them, but for this the Emirati bank requires an impressive list of documents, including contracts with counterparties. The Wall Street Journal explains the credit institution’s selectivity due to pressure from Washington. Representatives of the US Treasury and State Departments recently visited the United Arab Emirates. Most likely, the conversation was about compliance with sanctions against Moscow. Although the behavior of Emirates NDB cannot be explained solely by fears of falling under restrictions, believes Roman Makarov, partner of the NSP law office:
“People from Russia come and open an account for a company that, for example, has a license to carry out consulting operations. Then this organization begins to purchase servers in India and send them to Russia – that is, to do something completely different from what it indicated in its license. It doesn’t work like that in the UAE.
Russian clients also open a company, for example, to purchase real estate. After that, they put money on it and buy a skyscraper in Dubai. It’s a great, good investment, but the bank opens an account and no payments go through that account. Large and respected financial institutions in Dubai do not like this. The manager for opening corporate accounts at NDB Bank told me this personally.”
Emirates NDB itself declined to comment on data on individual clients, but noted that it intends to fight financial crimes and money laundering, as well as comply with sanctions. By the way, not only this organization, but also other local financial giants began to refuse services to Russian companies. Only businesses focused on the domestic market of the UAE do not face problems, Kommersant FM’s interlocutors say. However, according to Maria Chumanova, managing partner of FTL Advisers, the current policy of banks should not be taken as an alarming signal:
“As a jurisdiction that offers good service for creating trading companies, I think it is unlikely that the UAE will focus only on clients operating in the local market. Perhaps banks will simply become more selective.
We see a struggle for an interesting client, that is, with high turnover and minimal minimum balances, and non-sanctioned ones – IT and food products.”
In general, Kommersant FM’s interlocutors are optimistic. According to them, even if large banks refuse to cooperate with Russians, there will be smaller players with a higher risk appetite. But even against problems with giants, in some cases a personal agreement with management can insure.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
[ad_2]
Source link
