Russian Bank Sberbank "Exclusion from International Payment Network Has No Significant Impact"

Sberbank branch in Saint Petersburg

Russia's largest state-owned bank, Sberbank, claimed that "the bank's operations will not be significantly affected by the exclusion from the international payment network," according to Russia's TASS news agency on the 31st (local time). Sberbank has been excluded from the international payment network due to the EU's sixth round of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

In a statement released that day, Sberbank said regarding its exclusion from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment network due to EU sanctions, "The main (Western) sanctions are already in effect," and "the SWIFT exclusion will not affect the current situation related to international payments." It added, "Domestic transactions within Russia do not rely on SWIFT and will proceed normally."

The EU, in adopting its sixth sanctions package against Russia the previous day, decided to ban imports of Russian crude oil transported by sea and excluded Sberbank, which had previously been exempted from sanctions for gas and oil payment settlements, from the SWIFT payment network.

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