Austria called US inspection of Raiffeisenbank in Russia normal

The Austrian Ministry of Finance did not see a reason for concern in the audit of the Russian division of Raiffeisenbank by the US authorities. It is reported by Reuters with reference to the ministry.

“The investigation by the US  Sanctions Authority is a normal process that is not a cause for concern because the sanctions authorities naturally continue to receive information about Austrian companies doing business in Russia,” the ministry said in a statement.

In mid-February, the bank received a request from the US Department of the Treasury to "clarify the payment business and related processes supported by Raiffeisenbank in light of recent developments related to Russia and Ukraine." Reuters experts noted that the sanctions division of the Ministry of Finance conducts such checks periodically and they do not mean automatic imposition of fines.

Raiffeisenbank is the Russian subsidiary of the Austrian financial group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). As reported by the Financial Times (FT) with reference to the words of a top manager of the bank, the Russian Raiffeisenbank now accounts for 40-50% of all payments between Russia and the rest of the world.

At the end of February, the bank decided to increase the minimum amount of currency transfers. The decision was made against the background of Tinkoff Bank's disconnection from the SWIFT international financial messaging system, which banks use for currency transactions. This happened as a result of the introduction of EU sanctions against Tinkoff Bank on February 25th. Also, since February 27, SWIFT transfers in dollars, pounds sterling, Danish kroner, Japanese yen, Swedish krona, Canadian dollars, Norwegian kroner, Australian dollars and Swiss francs have been suspended by Uralsib Bank, which on February 24, 2023 came under blocking US sanctions .