MOSCOW, April 11Banks of friendly countries have sharply increased the number of refusals to process payments from Russia, VTB head Andrei Kostin said at the congress of the Association of Russian Banks.
““The situation here is developing dynamically, and, unfortunately, it’s not very encouraging… the number of foreign banks that are ready to continue working with us is constantly decreasing,” he said.
«After the tightening of the secondary sanctions regime at the end of 2023, the number of refusals to make payments from compliance control without explanation of the reasons sharply increased. This applies primarily to banks of friendly jurisdictions,» the banker added. 
By According to him, payment terms are increasing and commissions are growing. The volume of requested documentation has increased, especially for critical product groups — electronics, computers, high-precision machines and equipment.
«To summarize, we can say this: if a year ago we were faced with the task of excluding SDN participants from transaction routes and not using SWIFT, now geography itself (Russia) is becoming the central problem,» — Kostin said.