A large Turkish bank began checking residence permits for Russian clients

The Turkish Denizbank, which is loyal to Russians, sent letters to some clients asking them to urgently provide documents confirming their residence in Turkey. Experts allow him to close inactive accounts of clients without a residence permit

One of the largest banks in Turkey, Denizbank, sent out letters en masse to clients from RUSSIA asking them to provide documents confirming their right to reside in Turkey. Two intermediaries who help Russians open cards in Turkish banks told RBC about this. Russian clients of the bank also report about the mailing of letters in thematic chats. Lawyer Elena Ryazanova, who received such a letter, spoke about this in her TELEGRAM channel.

“Unfortunately, your Turkish residential address is not indicated in our bank. In order for us to enter your Turkish address into the system, we urgently ask you to reply to this email with your residence permit and a document confirming your Turkish registration, or please bring the documents to the nearest Denizbank branch,” the bank’s letter says. which RBC reviewed.

As one of the intermediaries, Sergei Ovsyannikov, said, the central office of Denizbank has not yet explained why it was necessary to provide this data. There was also no official information about the bank’s intention to close the accounts of a certain category of Russians. However, he assumes that those clients who do not have a residence permit are at risk and their account may be closed due to an insufficient balance. But so far there is also no information about what amount is required in the account so that the balance is not blocked. This information should appear in the near future, Ovsyannikov specified. According to him, the mass mailing of letters began on Wednesday, February 14, in the afternoon.

Another intermediary, Elena Chernyshova, says that letters began to arrive to Denizbank clients about a week ago. She explains this newsletter by saying that the bank is updating data, since many clients bought real estate in order to obtain citizenship or a residence permit. At the same time, according to her, there are no plans to close the accounts of active clients, but those accounts where there is no movement of funds and balance may be blocked. Chernyshova clarified that Turkish banks have closed inactive accounts before.

RBC sent a request to Denizbank.

How bankers in Turkey treat Russians

Over the past month, Denizbank has not opened accounts for new clients from Russia, Ovsyannikov continues. “The failure rate is 95%. The department accepts documents, fills out an application for an account, but in the end, clients do not pass the compliance check,” he says. According to Chernyshova, Denizbank has completely stopped accepting applications to open an account from any foreign citizens, not just Russians, since mid-January 2024 .

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Denizbank is one of the few banks in Turkey that opened accounts for Russians without a residence permit. However, the bank has repeatedly tightened the conditions for opening an account and servicing. Thus, in the fall of 2022, after the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia and a massive influx of Russians to Turkey, Denizbank began opening cards subject to a deposit of 10 thousand liras for a month, and also preferred to accept for service those Russians who turned to banking intermediaries. In November of the same year, the credit institution increased the minimum deposit amount almost tenfold - to at least $5 thousand (now this amount has been reduced to $3 thousand, Ovsyannikov clarifies) - and set the minimum size of outgoing SWIFT transfer at $10 thousand.

In March 2022, the international payment systems Visa and Mastercard left Russia, as a result of which their cards stopped working abroad. Until September of the same year, cards from the Russian payment system Mir worked in Turkey, but after threats from the United States to impose sanctions for cooperation with a Russian company, Turkish banks began to disable their acceptance. Cards of Turkish banks are necessary for Russians to make non-cash payments and transfer funds to them from Russian accounts.

At the end of 2023, US President Joe Biden signed a decree according to which foreign banks could be subject to restrictions for helping with transactions with sanctioned entities and supplies to the Russian defense industry. After this, another wave of tightening the terms of service for Russians in a number of foreign banks and difficulties with making payments and transfers began, including in Chinese yuan and Turkish lira. For example, as Vedomosti reported with reference to business owners trading with Turkey, some banks in this country began to close accounts of Russian companies from the beginning of 2024 and tightened requirements for individuals from Russia who want to open cards.