Page 119 - RusRPTJul22

Russia’s only purely online bank Tinkoff Bank of TCS Group will introduce a 1% monthly (12% annual) commission on foreign currency accounts with a balance of over $1,000, RBC business portal reported citing the bank’s Telegram announcement. The bank also said that SWIFT transfers will be free until the end of July, potentially becoming paid after that.
Previous reports claimed that in these conditions the banks would start discouraging the use of foreign currency and stimulate the use of ruble. The banks could even be allowed to introduce negative interest rates for foreign currency deposits of corporate clients and close-to-zero interest rates for retail clients.
Tinkoff Bank also announced on June 9 that “existing saving accounts in euros and [US] dollars will be closed, with the funds to be transferred to clients’ accounts in the same currency”. As of May 28 the bank is no longer opening foreign currency deposits.
The bank’s representatives told RBC that Tinkoff is looking to decrease exposure to “unreliable foreign currency counterparties abroad” and cutting its currency position overall.
Raiffeisenbank also said that it would charge an additional commission for using foreign currency on current banking accounts, but not on currency deposits, according to RBC.
Banks are discouraging depositors from holding FX savings by charging them for it. Tinkoff has set a significantly higher commission - 1% per month or 12% per annum for accounts with a balance of over $1000. in dollars, euros, pounds and Swiss francs. Later, a similar commission will begin to operate for brokerage accounts at Tinkoff.
Simply put, Tinkoff customers who leave money in their accounts will now lose $120 from $1,000 a year. At the same time, the bank cancelled the commission for SWIFT transfers until June 30 - it is obvious that this will allow customers to transfer currency to other banks or countries for free.
Customers understood the hint - within a couple of hours after the announcement, Tinkoff ATMs began to run out of dollars and euros.
Rosbank was also going to introduce commissions for foreign currency accounts by the end of June. They are still discussing the
119 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com