Russia initiated aggression against Ukraine in 2014. On February 24, 2022, it started a full-scale military invasion to the Ukrainian territory. This brutal war and military crimes of Russian troops caused a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine with thousands civilians killed and millions becoming refuges. As a reaction to this act of aggression, many international companies decided to leave the Russian market, while some others continue doing business there as usual. We track such decisions of companies and urge them to stop funding the war.
Hold off investments: company postponing future planned investment/development/marketing while continuing substantive business
Pausing InvestmentsReducing Activities: company scaling back some business operations while continuing others
Scaling BackPause operations: company temporarily curtailing operations while keeping return options open
SuspensionClean Break: the company completely halting Russian engagements or exiting Russia
WithdrawalExit Completed: company sold its business/assets or its part of the business to a local partner and leaved the market
Exit CompletedStop new business in Russia while meaningfully cutting exposure by 56%. Credit Suisse is shocked, with 17.6 billion Swiss francs blocked in CS alone. UBS sets ‘red lines’ for Credit Suisse staff as it completes takeover. UBS executives have drawn up a list of nearly two dozen “red lines” that prohibit Credit Suisse staff from a range of activities from the first day the two banks are combined, according to people with knowledge of the measures. Prohibited activities include taking on clients from countries such as Libya, Russia, Sudan and Venezuela and launching new products without approval from UBS managers.
Plans to stop investments in Russia this year
Suspending investments in Russia. Continuing to supply food packaging, hygiene and cleaning products. Continuing to operate a polymer dispersion plant in Russia. Has a stake in a polyurethane systems joint venture in Russia. Pledge of $275 K for humanitarian aid for Ukrainian people.
Received revenues in Russia. Denizbank have suspended use of Russian payment system Mir, the banks said on Monday, following a U.S. crackdown on those accused of helping Moscow skirt sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The Turkish bank began to reset and close the accounts of the Russians. The Turkish bank began to reset and close the accounts of Russians.
Initially made complete blocking of the payment system. But in October 2023, the American company Apple has published new rules for Russian app developers, allowing their users to use external payment methods for making purchases without Apple's involvement.
Bank of America began to close the accounts of Russian consulates. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the statement of Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov. In Aug-2022 cautiously returned to the market for Russian government and corporate bonds. "Merrill Lynch Securities" (part of the Bank of America group) is put up for sale.
India's Bank of Baroda has stopped clearing payments for Russian oil sold above the price cap set by the West.
Cautiously returned to the market for Russian government and corporate bonds.
BitMEX to Restrict Services to Russians in EU due to sanctions, Russians in Russia will not be affected
Suspend new business activity and investments; continue cooperation with current clients. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon will stop servicing Gazprombank's correspondent accounts at the end of January 2023.
Crypto exchange Bybit initially didn't plan to sanction russian users despite MAS call. But later, following Binance, crypto exchanges OKX and Bybit closed operations with sanctioned Russian banks on p2p platforms.
The company decided to stop soliciting any new business or clients. The company continue to reduce the remaining operations in Russia and expand the scope of the exit process but cautiously returned to the market for Russian government and corporate bonds and buy Russian debt. Citigroup on Friday, October 14 announced plans to shut down its institutional banking operations in Russia as Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine stretches into its seventh month. Finding a buyer for Russian business proved near impossible. After exhausting all options, in August 2022 Citi started winding down both consumer and local commercial banking businesses in Russia, selling select consumer banking portfolios where possible and making sure their colleagues, clients and partners were supported during the wind down process. Continue to work with multinational clients to end nearly all institutional banking services by the end of Q1 2023. At that point, only operations in Russia will be those necessary to fulfill the remaining legal and regulatory obligations. Also, it was analized that Citibank cannot be sold due to problems with the IT system. Citibank will suspend the purchase of dollars and euros at the box office. Citibank is winding down its ATM network in Russia.
Coinbase CEO says he’ll only freeze Russia’s crypto if U.S. forces it. Crypto exchange Coinbase has blocked wallets associated with Russians.
Dushanbe City Bank Suspends Russia's Mir Payment System. Dushanbe City Bank began issuing cards of the Russian payment system "Mir" in Tajikistan, combined with the national payment system of the republic "Korti Milli".
One of the largest banks in the UAE — Emirates NBD — will begin transferring assets of Russians to separate accounts, where all payments on securities belonging to them will go. Investors managed to unlock part of the assets on accounts with Emirates NBD. We are talking about securities of American issuers and part of the funds on investment accounts in ENBD. Access to European securities and payments on them remains limited.
Euroclear Bank already: does not accept any orders for ruble transfers; does not process ruble payments that are associated with such events as receipt of income from securities or funds from redeemed securities. Euroclear helps to block the resources of sanctioned Russian companies and even earns from this because they have free resources, part of which they can even transfer to the benefit of Ukraine. Euroclear resumes settlements on several issues of federal loan bonds (OFZ) and sovereign eurobonds of the Russian Federation in euros maturing in 2025. The total amount of claims against Euroclear and Clearstream is close to ₽700 billion.
Turkish bank Fibabanka banned citizens of Russia and Belarus from using their bank cards outside of Turkey.
Has Been Selling Russian Assets Since March, RF bonds and stocks down by 95% compared with a year prior
Suspend many transactions and cease new financing
Ongoing operations but limited purchasing of securities of any Russian company. This means that clients cannot open new positions in Russian securities, including their derivatives. Clients may hold their existing positions in non-sanctioned Russian securities or sell their positions. As of June 6, 2022, clients cannot open new positions (long or short) in non-sanctioned Russian securities. However, they may sell or hold their positions in non-sanctioned Russian securities.
Shuts its Russia ETF (exchange-traded fund) after suspension in March
Turkish lenders Isbank have suspended use of Russian payment system Mir, the banks said on Monday, following a U.S. crackdown on those accused of helping Moscow skirt sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
JP Morgan Asset Management has also suspended its Russia Equity Fund. It will not be investing in Russia or Belarus for the foreseeable future.
JBIC (govt bank) has suspended loans to a Russian natural-gas project in Siberia operated by Russian energy company Novatek.
Cautiously returned to the market for Russian government and corporate bonds
Wind down Russian office, suspend new business in Russia, reduce current exposure; retain current Russian clients. The Swiss bank Julius Baer, on the instructions received from the Belgian depository Euroclear, will carry out the segregation of securities of Russian citizens who do not have passports, residence permits of the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. One of the largest banks in Switzerland, Julius Baer, is going to stop serving clients from the Russian Federation in the near future. The financial organization intends to close the accounts of Russians using its services by December 31, 2023.
The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) has decided to delist the shares of some Russian companies, including Yandex. Trading in shares of Russian companies, including Gazprom, Nornickel, LUKOIL, and Magnit, Sberbank, VTB and some others, was suspended on KASE as early as March 1 last year.
Due to the events related to the war in Ukraine caused by Russian aggression involving Belarus, Komerční banka has decided not to make payments to Russia and Belarus in any currency from March 1, 2023, outside the framework of legal sanctions.
Paused transaction through cards in Russia
US authorities suspected Kraken of violating sanctions. In February 2022, Powell rejected a proposal to block the accounts of all users from Russia without legal requirements. He emphasized his respect for the people of Ukraine, but explained his position with libertarian values. Kraken is the latest cryptocurrency exchange to restrict accounts of Russian users on its platform in compliance with sanctions from the European Union.Russian users would be able to withdraw their funds by request.
Huobi and KuCoin, both based in Seychelles, still allow traders to transact with debit cards issued by sanctioned Russian banks, including Sberbank, on their peer-to-peer platforms. On the p2p platform of the KuCoin crypto exchange, the Russian banks "Sber", "Tinkoff" and others, in respect of which sanctions have been imposed, were removed.
New restrictions on payments received from banks in Russia and Belarus
Suspended some Russian imports. Russian aluminium giant Rusal mulls selling directly on LME. The London Metal Exchange (LME) said it has suspended the inflow of Russian base metals into its US registered warehouses due to the planned imposition of tariffs on Russian metal by the United States.
Japanese expats working for MUFG Bank (Eurasia) have moved out of Russia to work outside of the country on a temporary basis
Suspend commercial operations within Russia
Suspended trading of Russian stocks. Nasdaq Tells Yandex, Other Russian Firms of Plan To Delist Stocks. Curtail Russian access to capital markets. Following Yandex, Qiwi achieved the reversal of NASDAQ's decision to delist shares.
Promised to divest all Russian stocks in February 2022, but still hold a lot of Russian shares through their Oil Fund. Investments in Russia have never been big compared to other markets. Last year, the fund’s values in Moscow listed equities shrunk from about $2,7 billion at the start of the year down to less than $300 million (2,9 billion kroner), the list published by the banks shows. By December 31, 2022, Norway owned shares in 51 Russian listed companies, of which seven are in the petroleum and energy sector which helps Russia fuel its war economy.
The departure of Visa and Mastercard effectively disabled all standard systems of contactless payments for Russian customers, however, Samsung Pay in the Russian Federation continued to provide payments from "Mir" cards. The payment system for mobile devices Samsung Pay will stop working with cards of the Russian payment system Mir. “Starting April 3, 2024, adding and using Mir cards in Samsung Pay will no longer be available. At the same time, the functionality of adding and using club cards/loyalty cards in the Samsung Pay application will work without changes,” the statement reads. All cards linked to Samsung Pay will be automatically unlinked on April 3, 2024.
On June 6, 2022 will stop servicing brokerage accounts
Has decided to suspend all financial transactions where payments are made to or from Russia and Belarus. Latvian branch of Swedbank to pay 3.4 million dollars over Crimean sanction violation.
The EU approved the disconnection of seven Russian banks from SWIFT.
Tether Disregards Ukraine's Plea to Block Russian Users - Bloomberg.
Suspend new business in Russia and reduce current exposure by helping clients unwind Russia securities; reducing Russian client services; passed back the license of the depositary activity. The Swiss bank UBS has begun mass inspections of clients of Russian origin. As follows from the UBS letter, the bank intends to clear its client base of Russians under sanctions. The inspection is being conducted "in connection with the measures taken by the Federal Council in relation to Russia," the document says.