China’s largest banks have stopped accepting payments from Russia
21 February 2024 16:36
Three of China’s largest banks have stopped accepting payments from Russian sanctioned banks, Russian media report. These are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank and Bank of China, reports 
Chinese banks have imposed restrictions on accepting payments since the beginning of the year, but they apply only to sanctioned banks. Transactions with non-sanctioned banks are still ongoing.
ICBC and CCB reject all payments coming from sanctioned financial institutions, regardless of whether they are made through the European SWIFT system, the Russian SPFS or the Chinese CIPS, a source in a Russian bank said. The Chinese side explains the refusals by the company’s internal policy.
However, the real reason is most likely that Chinese credit institutions fear the imposition of secondary US sanctions due to their interaction with sanctioned banks and companies from Russia.
There are four major banks in China. So far, only one of them accepts Russian payments.
reported that even earlier, Russians had problems with Turkish banks. It is known that they are increasingly failing to make payments even with financial institutions in Central Asia, which have traditionally been very favourable to Russia.
According to media reports, the new EU sanctions package will also include secondary sanctions. It should include about 200 companies from Russia, China and some other countries. These companies do not comply with the restrictions imposed by the previous sanctions, so the EU wants to limit its own countries’ cooperation with them.
