Germany is asserting itself behind the scenes and making sure that energy imports from Russia can continue to be paid for. Therefore, two of the three largest Russian banks will remain part of the Swift financial information system. Seven money houses are excluded.
A building of the Russian Sberbank in Moscow.
It has been clear since last week that the EU, in consultation with the G-7 countries, wants to exclude Russian banks from the Swift financial information system. This largely makes international transfers impossible. The alliance of states now has a list of the seven banks affected Official Journal released.
It is particularly striking that the largest bank (Sberbank) and the third largest bank (Gazprombank) are not on the list and thus remain in the Swift system.
In contrast, the number two in Russia, VTB Bank, as well as Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Bank Rossiya, Sovcombank and Vnesheconombank (VEB) are excluded. This confirms the lists that have been circulating in various media since Tuesday.
With the publication in the Official Journal, the sanction against these banks is in force. Now the Belgian state must ensure that Swift – it is a Belgian organization – complies with the sanctions. Swift has signaled that the guidelines will be followed.
Because Swift is Belgian, it was also up to the Europeans to take care of this sanction, even if the effects will be felt worldwide for the financial houses concerned.
But before the plug is finally pulled or the seven banks are deleted from the database, there is a grace period of ten days. According to an EU official, this should also serve to ensure that European banks can still process open transactions and limit their losses. After all, it’s about hitting Russia as hard as possible and Europe as little as possible.
Energy import should remain possible
This is also the reason why two of the three largest banks will not be affected by this sanction. Germany and other EU countries that are heavily dependent on Russian natural gas, such as Italy, want to continue importing energy from Russia and be able to pay for it. Of course, this limits the effect of the Swift exclusion, since Moscow can still get foreign exchange in this way.
Germany, Finance Minister Christian Lindner declared in Paris on Friday, does not want to voluntarily put itself in a position of weakness. But other EU countries like Poland are said to have campaigned behind the scenes for a more extensive exclusion. About 25 percent of Russia’s banking sector will be excluded from Swift, according to an EU official. If you add other sanctions, around three quarters of the market are affected in some way by punitive measures from the West due to Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine.