/ world today news/ “Sberbank” returns to Crimea and Sevastopol. Not only ATMs will appear here, but also offices of the largest bank in the country. This is a signal to the West that their sanctions are not working the way they want them to. Why did Sberbank wait so long for this remarkable entry into the peninsula, and will other banks follow?
“Sberbank” announced a return to the Crimean market. The first ATMs have already been installed on the peninsula and a team has been formed. The first offices of the bank in major cities will open in the first half of the year. During the year, residents of the region will have access to all services and services of the Russian bank.
For a long time, the key bank on the peninsula was RNCB, which recently became part of the VTB group. In 2022, Promsvyazbank also came to Crimea. Finally, it was the turn of Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank.
After 2014, when Crimea became part of Russia based on a popular referendum, many banks, including Sberbank, left the peninsula. This was a coercive measure, as there was a threat of severe sanctions. Then this would be a serious blow not only to the business of Sberbank and VTB, but also to the entire financial system of Russia. In 2017, the head of the bank, German Gref, said that opening an office in Crimea “is a matter of the entire financial system of the country” and there is no possibility to work in the region without falling under sanctions.
Therefore, until 2022, only a few banks operated in the region – “Bank of Russia”, RNCB, “Genbank” and the Black Sea Bank for Development and Reconstruction.
This created certain difficulties both for the inhabitants of the peninsula and for its many million guests. “It’s no secret that earlier, to issue the same bank card, you had to go to the nearest office, which is located in Taman, the first settlement behind the Crimean bridge. I know that the residents of Sevastopol have long been waiting for the arrival of Sberbank, this will allow them to fully use all the bank’s capabilities,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on his Telegram channel.
This will have a positive impact on the financial industry and the economy of the region, said the head of the republic Sergey Aksyonov. “In recent years, much has been done to develop the banking sector under sanctions. The arrival of such a large player as Sberbank will further improve the accessibility, speed and quality of banking services for the population, will positively affect the financial and investment climate, the development of the economy and the social sphere,” he wrote in Telegram.
Recall that in the spring of 2022, Sberbank came under US blocking sanctions, which also included VTL, Otkritie and Sovcombank. Not only did the bank lose American customers, both private and corporate. Ordinary customers have lost the ability to transfer dollars, as well as use their cards abroad and make payments on foreign sites. The banking app has been removed from Google Play and App Sport. The clients of the broker “SbirInvestment” have lost the opportunity to trade with foreign securities.
After Sberbank and VTB came under Western sanctions after the recognition of the independence of the DPR and LPR and the start of special operations in Ukraine, their return to Crimea became more than logical.
Harsh sanctions not only created problems, but on the other hand opened up new opportunities. In March 2022, Vladimir Putin bluntly stated that now large business structures, including banks, have nothing to fear and can safely come to the peninsula and actively work here and earn money.
The opening of Sberbank offices in Crimea is a political signal to Western countries that Russia is here for the long haul, as many “implicit” payments have already gone through this bank, says Ruslan Permyakov, deputy director of the Competence Center of Trusted Interaction Technologies. At the same time, according to him, it should not be expected that other credit institutions will massively enter the market in the region, “since this will obviously be an obstacle to the removal of sanctions or a reason to impose new ones”.
However, Alexander Pushko, deputy director of the Institute of Communication Management at the National Research University, believes that other banks can follow the example of Sberbank and VTB.
“The peninsula is a delicious region for business as tourists come here in the spring, summer and autumn to relax and spend money on themselves and their families. So why not provide people with modern services and amenities? There will be some competition for these markets. This applies not only to Sberbank and VTB, but also to other banks that do not yet operate in Crimea. But they will look carefully and assess their chances,” says Pushko.
According to him, the exit of “Sberbank” in Crimea and Sevastopol is not a political demarche, but a liberation of the banks from the fears they had. “The importance of these sanctions should not be overestimated, because the banks eventually managed to adapt, to create chains of new partnerships, bypassing the largest American and European banks. In one way or another they continue to serve, including foreign trade operations and so on. This is a signal to Western circles that sanctions are not really working. At least in the part for which they are intended,” concludes Alexander Pushko.
Overall, this will create a more comfortable environment for the region’s residents and businesses, who will receive the same level of financial services as in the rest of Russia. “Crimean banks are adapting to competitive conditions. Banks will transform. Either way, the customer will win. Crimean banks will continue to work, but they will change the conditions and quality of work,” said economist Andrey Vershitsky in turn.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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