Contents tagged with Central Bank of Russia

  • Russia considers introducing sanctions against Georgia

    The draft bill of the Russian State Duma on measures in connection with "anti-Russian provocations in Georgia" has been published in the database of the lower house of Parliament.

    Russian Deputies urge the government to consider whether special economic measures should be applied against Georgia and then submit recommendations to President Vladimir Putin.

    Russian Deputies called protests in Georgia "open attacks of radical forces." According to them, the actions lead to deterioration of …

  • Russia considers adopting cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions

    Venezuela’s example of trying to bypass US sanctions using its own national cryptocurrency, the “petro”, has proved to be contagious.

    The Russian government is now prepared to consider creating a national gold-backed cryptocurrency, said Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank of Russia, during a meeting of several parliamentary committees, reports finanz.ru.

    Such a cryptocurrency is needed for BRICS countries to make payments on arms contracts, explained Vladimir Gutenyov, First Deputy …

  • Russia’s biggest American investor placed under 2 month arrest in Moscow

    Russia’s legal system continues to dampen the country’s already troubled investment climate.

    Michael Calvey, founder of Baring Vostok, the largest direct investment fund in Russia with more than 80 projects and $3 billion in capital invested in the Russian economy, was arrested by the Basmanny District Court of Moscow on Saturday and sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months.

    A graduate of the University of Oklahoma and the London School of Economics and Political Science, Calvey …

  • Citibank to close one third of its Russian branches

    The subsidiaries of foreign banks are continuing to reduce their presence in Russia. Citibank, a subsidiary of the American Citigroup, plans to close one third of its branches in Russia over the course of 2019, board member and consumer business manager Michael Berner told reporters on Wednesday.

    The bank is currently in the top 30 in Russia by assets, and has 22 branches, 12 of them in Moscow.

    “In the first quarter we plan to close two branches in Moscow and one in St. Petersburg, and in the …

  • Russia’s Central Bank removes capital withdrawal indicator after $67 billion outflow

     The indicator for “net withdrawal of capital by the private sector” has disappeared from all of the Bank of Russia’s reports following the indicator’s sharp decline in 2018, reports finanz.ru. 

    After capital outflow accelerated by 170% and reached a record since 2014, the Central Bank decided to rename the corresponding line in its publications. 

    The previous description was replaced by the neutral line “financial operations of the private sector”. The change was made not only in the latest …

  • Kremlin tells Russian banks to prepare for disconnection from international payment systems

    This coming January, the U.S. Congress will resume reviewing sanctions bills, and the Russian Central Bank has begun to prepare for tough scenarios, with the possibility of one of the Russian banks to be disconnected from international payment systems.

    According to the newspaper Vedomosti, the Central Bank sent letters to the Russian financial institutions recommending taking preventive measures in case the partner-banks, through which they work with the Visa and MasterCard systems, will be …

  • Chinese banks are closing Russian business accounts

    Chinese banks have begun purging themselves of Russian clients, closing company accounts left right and center, blocking payments, and refusing to process even the most simple operations, such as currency conversion, Skymax managing partner Igor Shibanov told RIA Novosti.

    According to Shibanov, who works both in mainland China and in Hong Kong, the problems began roughly one and a half years ago. Initially, companies that were placed on the US and EU sanctions lists were at risk, but now the …

  • Russia loses $2.2 billion through yuan investments

    The Bank of Russia continues to lose foreign currency reserves as a result of its operations on the international currency market, finanz.ru reports.

    After the unsuccessful conversion of euros into dollars in 2017, which led to a loss of $4.5 billion, the Central Bank of Russia decided to invest a record amount in the Chinese yuan, and once again made losses in the billions on exchange rate differences.

    By the start of April, the proportion of the Chinese currency in Russia’s foreign currency …

  • British court refuses to extradite former bank owner to Russia

    Former co-owner of Trust Bank Ilya Yurov, who was placed on the international wanted list by Russia, will remain in the UK. The Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruled that extraditing him to Russia would constitute a human rights violation.

    Ilya Yurov came to the UK from Russia after Trust Bank was reorganized in December 2014. In Russia he is accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds. The Russian investigation believes that, between 2012-2014, he and several other of the bank’s …

  • Capital outflow from Russia grew almost threefold

    The rate of capital outflow from Russia continues to grow. From January to July 2018 $21.5 billion (compared to $ 8.7 billion in the first seven months of 2017) was exported by Russia’s private sector. From January to August, the capital outflow rose to $ 26.5 billion compared to $ 9.6 billion for the same period last year, according to the report of the Central Bank of Russia.

    Thus, in the first eight months of 2018, the total net capital outflow from the private sector was 2.76 times higher …