On June 13, Bank of China limited the ability of Modulbank, Akibank, Unicredit and Finam clients to transfer yuan to the USA, Great Britain, Switzerland and EU countries. RBC and Frank Media drew attention to the reports of Russian banks about this.
The listed banks use correspondent accounts with the Bank of China for operations in yuan. It is noted that transactions are available only to the accounts of foreign customers of the Chinese bank. Finam manager Dmitry Leonov told RBC that Bank of China has limited transfers not only in yuan, but also in euros, US and Hong Kong dollars.
Pavel Semyonov, Chairman of the Board of Modulbank, which specializes in servicing small and medium-sized businesses, believes that such a “decision was made not by China, but by the EU and the US parties”, which “are trying to exercise sanctions pressure by blocking alternative channels in the form of the yuan” .
In April, The Economist wrote that since December last year, 16% of Russian exports were paid for in yuan, although this figure was negligible before the war in Ukraine. You can read the translation of the material on how the Russian banking system was tripled under the conditions of war and sanctions on the Mediazona website.
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