Russia's central bank warns Western banks not to discriminate against Russian clients (updated)

OTP Bank Nyrt.

13/09/2024 14:08

MOSCOW, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Russia's central bank has
sent a stark warning to subsidiaries of Western banks remaining
in Russia not to discriminate against their Russian clients by
denying them services such as transferring money abroad, as the
banks come under pressure from Western regulators. 
    Austria's Raiffeisen  RBIV.VI  and Italy's UniCredit
 CRDI.MI  are the biggest foreign banks still present in Russia
despite pressure from Western regulators to pull out. Both are
on the central bank's list of systematically important banks.
Hungary's OTP also has operations in Russia.   
    A Russian court froze Raiffeisen Bank International's shares
in a local arm earlier this month, blocking the biggest Western
bank in Russia from leaving. The Austrian bank stopped money
transfers abroad for Russian clients from Sept. 1. 
    "We are seeing pressure. We believe that the segregation
being proposed is unacceptable. The subsidiaries of European and
other foreign banks in Russia were established according to
Russian laws," central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said. 
    "In this regard, we recently issued directives to the
subsidiaries of European banks in Russia, prohibiting them from
refusing to process foreign currency transfers or creating
technical obstacles for such transfers based on approaches that
do not comply with Russian law," Nabiullina added. 
    Nabiullina said the central bank will review the list of
systemically important banks this autumn but declined to say
whether Raiffeisen and UniCredit will be removed from the list. 

 (Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, writing by Gleb Bryanski;
Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
 ((gleb.bryanski@thomsonreuters.com;))