UK’s largest bank stops processing personal payments from Russia and Belarus
One of Britain's largest banks, HSBC, has stopped processing all payments from Russia and Belarus for its personal banking clients.
This is reported by Reuters, Censor.NET cites ZN.UA.
A message posted on the bank's British website for retail customers says that the lender has "decided to stop processing payments" from these two countries and offer alternative options for any such transactions.
The decision to stop personal banking payments follows the British lender's exit from business banking in the country when it completed the sale of its unit in May, two years after initially announcing its exit in June 2022.
Banks around the world have been pulling out of Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent financial sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other countries.
HSBC, among European banks, is particularly sensitive to U.S. authorities' oversight, having paid more than $2 billion in fines and civil penalties in the U.S. for money laundering control deficiencies in its Mexican unit.
Last year, HSBC stopped servicing payments for Russian companies that used the bank's Hong Kong branch for transactions with Asia.
