Banks in Central Asian countries refuse payments from Russia – media

Banks in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan began to refuse to accept funds from Russian companies more often. This follows from the analysis of transport companies fuel and energy complex, Digital Foreign Economic Activity, GTL and Logita Trade. The Moscow Times writes about it on Thursday, July 25.

The share of refusals in payments through banks in Central Asia in July increased to 30%, and the average time for transactions increased by 15% – up to two weeks.

This situation is explained by the strengthening of compliance by banks in these countries – they demand more and more additional documents and explanations, in particular data about companies, their founders, clients, sources of funds and details of agreements, said Roman Romashevsky, financial director of the fuel and energy complex.

He clarified that the problems worsened in the second quarter of 2024 and appeared even when paying in national currencies.

“Most problems arise when paying for goods through Central Asian banks in other countries, in particular China,” said Anna Fomicheva, founder of Digital Foreign Economic Activity.

The format of cross-border transfers is changing every day, and companies are experiencing difficulties, including those related to the increase in the number of returns and rejections of transfers, explained the payment aggregator CDEK Pay . Transfer problems in Central Asian banks were confirmed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the business organization Support of Russia.

Banks explained this by saying they did not want to be affected by US sanctions.

We remind you that one of the largest state-owned banks in China, the Bank of China, stopped cooperating with the Moscow Exchange after it was subjected to US sanctions.

The head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Andrei Pyshny, said that the new US sanctions dealt a heavy blow to Russia’s financial infrastructure.