RBC: Swiss banks promised to close the accounts of Russian clients if they pay taxes in Russia

Some Swiss banks have begun to monitor the movement of funds in the accounts of Russian clients. Banks announced the closure of accounts for those customers who pay taxes to the Russian budget. This was reported RBC citing two lawyers and one source in the Swiss banking sector.

As Roman Kudinov, managing partner of the Swiss law office LEOLEX, told RBC, clients of the Swiss UBS and Credit Suisse began to face a similar situation about a month ago. According to him, about 10 people contacted his bureau, who were unofficially warned about the possible closure of accounts if they did not stop being owners of Russian companies and paying taxes in the country. Mr. Kudinov noted that the actions of the banks are selective, the banks have not taken any official action after such calls. Another lawyer from Switzerland told RBC that he has clients whose accounts have already been closed due to the payment of taxes to the Russian budget.

A source in the Swiss banking sector also confirmed that UBS could send such a warning to Russian clients. According to Roman Kudinov, banks explained the warning by the fact that customers pay taxes to a country that destabilizes the situation in Ukraine. Mr. Kudinov said that banks may resort to such measures due to pressure from the authorities, who had previously talked about tightening control over the implementation of sanctions against Russia.

According to the local banking association, there could be 150-200 billion Swiss francs in Switzerland, which belong to the Russians. Experts interviewed by RBC noted that other countries had previously noted that Switzerland had frozen relatively few Russian assets. The authorities reported that as of November 25, 2022, Russian assets worth 7.5 billion francs were frozen in Switzerland.

Olesya Pavlenko