The European Union might trim seven Russian banks from SWIFT, the international messaging system used to process payments, according to documents seen by POLITICO Tuesday (March 1).
The list includes VTB, the country’s second-largest lender and a financial services provider with branches in Russia, former Soviet states, Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States.
Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank and Sovcombank are also on the list.
But not every bank is included, the news outlet reported; Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, and Gazprombank, its third-largest lender, are not on the list.
The EU has been reluctant to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT network due to a dependence on Russian oil and gas. If SWIFT were to ban all the Russian banks, they would be reduced to antiquated payment methods such as faxing, the report said.
While sanctions against Russia are growing, the absence of Sberbank and Gazprombank from the list reveals concern about the potential economic impact of such a prohibition.
Politico reported that the list of lenders was discussed by a meeting of EU ambassadors Tuesday (March 1). The debate focused on which banks to block, with Poland trying to expand it.
“Poland would like it to be more ambitious,” one of the diplomats said.
On Sunday (Feb. 28), Reuters reported executives and compliance teams at major banks are working to understand the new sanctions imposed on Russia. Banks were scrambling to make sure they understand the idea behind the restrictions, including which Russian lenders had been banned from SWIFT.
See also: Global Banks Rush to Comply with Russian Sanctions
Global financial markets were set to open within hours, so banks had staff work on overdrive to prepare. It led to “frantic” calls to governments and regulators to fill in knowledge gaps.
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