Sberbank announced the possibility of using cards abroad and Apple Pay

Sberbank customers can perform all transactions, including exchanging currency in branches and in a mobile application, the bank said in a statement. The funds in the foreign currency account will be "available on demand," the bank claims.

Although currency transfers work, “due to additional verification on the side of counterparties, the time for conducting transactions may be increased,” the bank says: “Sberbank is studying what restrictions will affect our work with foreign correspondent accounts at the end of March.” Operations abroad with Sber cards also work without restrictions, as do payments via APPLE Pay and GOOGLE Pay.

On Thursday, February 24, the United States announced the imposition of sanctions against Sberbank, but the restrictions turned out to be less severe than those against VTB, Otkritie, Sovcombank and Novikombank, which were included in the SDN blocking list. American financial institutions (through which transactions with the DOLLAR are carried out) will reject payments in which Sberbank participates, but from March 26. By that time, they will also be unable to open or maintain correspondent or transit accounts for Sberbank.

At the same time, American banks will not freeze the funds of Sberbank, they should only reject the transaction.

“This action will limit Sberbank's access to transactions in dollars. Sberbank is the largest bank in RUSSIA, owns almost one-third of all assets in the Russian banking sector, is closely linked to the global financial system, and is systemically important to the Russian financial system,” the White House said in a statement.