Page 20 - bne Magazine February 2023

20 I Companies & Markets bne February 2023
There are over 3.4mn Ukrainians now living in Poland, up from an estimated 2mn before the war, and the country has issued over 1.3 resident permits to new Ukrainian nationals throughout 2022.
In 2022, the average remittance cheque from Poland to Ukraine slipped from €175 in January to €140 in December, which Tempo France attributes to increasingly difficult conditions for expat Ukrainians sending money home.
In 2023, Tempo expects many Ukrainians to return home and positive European economic trends that will lead to approximately 5% growth per annum in both the EU-Ukraine and Poland-Ukraine money transfer corridors.
Service providers eliminated tariffs in 2022 to make transfers
Russia’s VTB bank defies US sanctions on Iran with cross-border Iranian rials transfers
bne IntelliNews
VTB, the Kremlin’s second-largest bank, has announced it will launch cross-border bank transfers in Iranian rials, in direct contravention of US sanctions, Kommersant newspaper reported on December 19.
Retail and commercial account holders of VTB will be able to transfer amounts of up to $300,000 (RUB20mn) in an equivalent rial (IRR) amounts.
According to the bank, all transfers will pay a 1% commission at a minimum of RUB15,000 with funds credited to an Iranian bank account on the next business day.
“Cross-border transfers are available both in favour of individuals and legal entities in compliance with the requirements of currency legislation” the bank noted in its press release.
Customers will need to open a new Iranian rial account with VTB by purchasing currency from the bank via its mobile application. Transactions can also be done via depositing rials in VTB branches.
“We have become the first bank to implement international money transfers to Iran and, taking into account the
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more affordable. In 2023, competition in the corridor
is anticipated to increase and companies will offer new technological solutions and convenience to attract clients, Tempo France has already implemented a mobile app that can convert Polish zlotys directly to Ukrainian hryvnias, whereas previously users had to convert to euros first before converting into either of the two national currencies.
Tempo has also integrated its app into the Stellar blockchain to improve transparency and the speed of the transaction, and reduce costs to a minimum.
The company said that if the situation in Ukraine stabilises by the end of 2023, money transfer volumes between the EU to Ukraine could grow from 15% to 20% in 2024.
VTB is the first Russian bank to open Iranian floodgates in rial transfers / bne IntelliNews
strengthening of business ties, the growth of economic cooperation and the development of tourism, we expect that they will be in demand” the bank added.
VTB has past experience with dealing with bank transfers with Iran but was fined $9.5mn by the US for violating bank sanctions in 2014.
Earlier in November, the bank announced it was shutting down operations in London after a “100+ year history” in the City of London, according to its latest regulatory filing.
The London operation, which can trace its lineage back to Tsarist times via its Moscow Narodny subsidiary based near Cannon Street since the Revolution in 1917, has been a prestigious calling card for the Kremlin in the UK.
The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control penalised Bank of Moscow (a VTB subsidiary) for authorising 69 financial transfers, worth roughly $41mn, for a Russian subsidiary of Iran's Bank Melli between 2008 and 2009.