Currency does not work here: Sberbank becomes a completely ruble bank

Several major Russian banks immediately announced the introduction of fees for servicing current foreign currency accounts.

According to the Civil Code, banks are required to pay interest to customers on deposits, that is, they cannot introduce negative rates on deposits. However, there are no such restrictions for bank accounts, according to Forbes .

Based on the fact that now the rhetoric of the financial authorities is aimed at stopping the excessive strengthening of the ruble, you should not "rush to sell the currency at an inconvenient rate" - it is better to shift the currency from the account to the deposit for six months and wait for the strengthening of the dollar and the euro, the managing director of Arbat believes Capital Alexander Orlov .

As an alternative to keeping savings in dollars, you can consider buying gold on the Moscow Exchange, says Otkritie Investments personal broker Alexey Petrovsky .

It is cleared from foreign currency accounts, including Sberbank. Formally, if you had a foreign currency deposit in Sberbank, you can keep it there further, but you cannot withdraw it in the form of cash dollars, or even transfer it in foreign currency to another Russian bank. Not to mention cross-border payments, you will not be able to transfer your currency from Sberbank abroad now.

Refused to conduct operations with Sberbank and Chinese banks. Thus, disconnected from dollars, euros and SWIFT, the largest state bank of the Russian Federation also lost access to the yuan. According to the press service of the bank, this "temporary measure" affected corporate clients - participants in foreign economic activity, conducting settlements in Chinese currency. The call center of Sberbank explained to Frank Media correspondents that problems with settlements in yuan arose "due to the policy of the correspondent bank." “The bank is working with Chinese partners to resolve the situation and restore settlements,” the press service said. Earlier, Reuters wrote that Sberbank had difficulty converting rupees into rubles due to sanctions.

Financial analyst Serey Vasilyev writes about this:

“But this is the situation in Sberbank. There are other banks, in particular Gazprombank, subsidiaries of foreign banks, and many other Russian banks that calmly carry out currency payments. Therefore, in order to withdraw your currency from Sberbank, you need to convert it inside Sberbank into rubles, transfer it in rubles to another bank, re-convert it into currency and make a payment.

This is a kind of inconvenience and a loss in exchange rate differences and commissions. In total, it will cost you up to 0.4%. In general, you can “pay currency” from Sberbank, but it is hemorrhoids and costly.

You can’t even just withdraw your own currency from your personal account to the exchange, in order to convert it at the exchange rate there, you need to convert it into rubles within Sber itself, losing on conversions.

In general, it becomes unprofitable and uninteresting to keep the currency in the main savings bank of the country. And clients massively either transfer currency into rubles, or transfer the balance to another bank, even losing on commissions.

On the one hand, Sberbank, as the base bank for household deposits, will in the near future be a completely ruble-denominated bank.

On the other hand, a group of banks is being formed, which will more and more specialize in storing currency and making payments for export/import.

Where will it be more profitable and safer to keep your money?

On the one hand, Sberbank is under sanctions, but when there are only ruble accounts and ruble customer loans, such sanctions are not terrible for him. And the bank will be completely safe.

And on the other hand, "export / import" banks will be convenient in working through them in foreign currency, but they will also be more risky. Since they may fall under some kind of sanctions and they will freeze the currency on external correspondent accounts.

In general, "currency" banks will have more risks in the future, although today it is more convenient there. And in the "ruble" Sberbank it will be calmer.

But soon there will be no currency at all ... "