Turkish banks began to close accounts of Russian companies – Kommersant

Some banks from Turkey have begun to close accounts of Russian clients, they reported “Vedomosti” businessmen, financial consultants and representatives of business associations. According to the newspaper, requirements for individuals in Turkey have been increased. As Kommersant reported, after the US presidential decree on secondary sanctions was issued in December 2023, Turkish banks began to universally refuse to work with Russian ones.

One of Vedomosti’s interlocutors said that until December in Turkey, from the point of view of working with the Russian Federation, there were “two omnivorous and two semi-omnivorous banks.” According to him, the first category was threatened with inclusion in the SDN list (the most severe list of restrictions in terms of level of restrictions), which is why they began to close the correspondent accounts of a significant part of Russian companies and banks. “Semi-omnivorous” banks began to break off relations mainly with those who became clients after Russia sent troops to Ukraine.

Russian companies receive notifications with a recommendation to terminate all relationships and close the account within a certain time. State banks continue to make separate payments in national currencies for goods from the “green list,” which includes food and pharmaceutical products.

Service to corporate clients with Russian roots has been stopped, regardless of the country of registration, said Iskander Mirgalimov, a consultant for Russian business in terms of structuring international payments. According to him, Russian companies have begun to be recommended to complete transactions with Turkish banks and close accounts. This primarily concerns businesses that used Turkey as a transit country for payments and deliveries, as well as oil and gas traders.

The owner of one of the large trading brokers told Vedomosti that accounts began to be closed back in 2022, but now this process has intensified. At the same time, Arsen Ayupov, president of the Russian-Turkish Dialogue association and head of the specialized working group at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, noted that he had not heard about the mass closure of accounts of Russian companies. In his opinion, if this happened, it would be a “serious wake-up call.”

How US sanctions affected trade relations between the Russian Federation and Turkey – in the Kommersant material “Lyra awakened the evil”.

Leonid Uvarchev