Central Asia Has Prepared An Unpleasant Surprise For Russia

Banks of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan do not want to work with the Russian Federation.

Problems with payments from Russia reached the countries of Central Asia — banks in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan began to refuse to accept funds from Russian companies more often. This follows from the review of transport companies PEK, Digital FEA, GTL and Logita Trade, which was reviewed by RBC.

According to them, the share of refusals in payments through Central Asian banks in July increased to 30%, and the average duration of transactions increased by 15% — up to two weeks.

This situation is explained by the stricter compliance of banks in these countries — they are requesting more and more additional documents and explanations, including data on companies, their founders, customers, sources of funds and details of transactions, says Roman Romashevsky, CFO of PEK.

He clarified that the problems intensified in the second quarter of 2024 and arise even when payments are made in national currencies. "Due to the fact that the approaches are not unified, and there are no clear algorithms, a financial institution can make any decision on the possibility of making a payment — without a detailed explanation of the reasons," Romashevsky explained.

In the same bank, payment for a small batch of goods in the amount of $10,000 can be successful, and the operation in the amount of $50,000 can be canceled, confirms the general director of Logita Trade Tatyana Alekseeva.

"Most problems arise when paying for goods through Central Asian banks to other countries, including China," says Anna Fomicheva, founder of Digital FEA.

The format of cross-border transfers changes every day and companies face difficulties, including an increase in the number of refunds and refusals of transfers, noted in the payment aggregator CDEK Pay. Difficulties with transfers to Central Asian banks were confirmed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the business organization OPORA RUSSIA.

Banks explain this by the fact that they do not want to "fall under the distribution" in connection with US sanctions, said Nikolai Dunaev, chairman of the OPORA RUSSIA Committee on International Relations.

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