Belarusbank

The largest banks in Belarus in terms of assets for August 2020

History

2021: European correspondent accounts closed due to sanctions

The Belarusian banking system felt the heavy tread of European and American sanctions imposed in the summer in response to the repression and forced landing of the Ryanair flight. European banks began to massively close correspondent accounts in dollars and euros for Belarusian "states," without which it is impossible to conduct operations in two key world currencies.

In September 2021, Deutsche Bank, a key correspondent bank for the state credit organizations of the republic, closed the correspondent accounts of Belarusbank, Belinvestbank and Belagroprombank,  Nasha Niva reported.

Belagroprombank - one of the three banks that fell under EU sanctions - lost its correspondent relations not only with Deutsche, but also with all European colleagues, including German Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Italian Unione di Banche Italianei and Polish PKO Bank.

Even Russian "goss" refused foreign exchange transactions to Belagroprombank.

A similar situation has developed in Belarusbank and Belinvestbank, which also fell into the EU sanctions list.

Two thin strings on which the state banking sector is kept and which can break at any time are the European subsidiary of VTB (conducts operations for Belarusbank) and Transcapitalbank, which holds accounts in euros for Belagroprombank.