Russia’s Gazprombank ramps US dollar operation fee to 12%

By bne IntelliNews December 5, 2023

Russia’s third largest bank Gazprombank, affiliated with the natural gas giant Gazprom, will ramp up the commission fee for handling US dollars on its corporate accounts to 12%, according to Kommersant.

As followed by bne IntelliNews, Gazprombank is the only large unsanctioned Russian bank due to its role in the handling of the international trade settlements. In autumn 2023 amid the ruble weakening, Russia has reintroduced currency controls for exporters and is reportedly closely monitoring large-scale Fx deals on the domestic market

The analysts surveyed by Kommersant see the US dollar settling commission as “prohibitive” and believe that the bank wants to drive its clients to transfer the toxic sanctioned currency into other banks, to convert it as soon as possible, or switch to non-dollar settlements.

For now, Gazprombank does not charge commission for the handling and storage of euros, and the commission for other currencies (Swiss francs, Swedish krona, Japanese yen) will remain at 1.5%. While other banks charge much smaller fees for US dollar accounts, opening new currency accounts has become virtually impossible, according to the survey of the market participants by Kommersant

Despite Gazprombank not being sanctioned, at the beginning of 2023 US banks such as JP Morgan Chase Bank and Bank of New York Mellon stopped servicing GPB's dollar correspondent accounts.

Related Articles

Austria’s RBI ups profit in Russia in 1Q25

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) increased its pre-tax profit in Russia in 1Q25 by over 25% year on year to €575mn ($651mn) due to the stronger ruble, Reuters reports. In ... more

Russian VTB Bank surprises with $3bn dividend for 2024

The board of Russia’s second-largest bank state controlled VTB recommended paying out RUB275.8bn ($2.97bn) in total dividends for 2024, according to Interfax corporate disclosure portal. As ... more

Russia’s Sberbank posts record profit of $5bn in 1Q25

Russia’s largest bank Sberbank (Sber) increased its profit by 10% year on year to record-high RUB436bn ($4.7bn) in 1Q25, making a return on equity of 22%, according to the bank’s announcement. ... ... more

Dismiss