Turkish banks face growing pressure from EU over Russian payments
Turkish banks are refusing to process payments from Russian companies to EU countries and other states, reports the Russian newspaper Vedomosti. European banks have also started refusing to accept payments from Turkish banks made by Russian importers to suppliers.
The newspaper Vedomosti emphasised that importers are again complaining about problems with payments through Turkey, whose banks are popular among domestic businesses and are used to transfer payments to other countries, including Europe.
It was noted that "pressures" are coming from both Turkish and European banks.
The last time a similar situation was observed was at the beginning of this year when the Turkish banking sector began to fear so-called secondary American sanctions for cooperating with Russian firms.
The problem intensified again in the summer. According to sources, European banks started to refuse to accept payments from Turkish banks for goods for entities supplying goods to the Russian side.
As a result, at the beginning of September, the Turkish banking sector began to refuse to accept such payments for Russian importers, the newspaper wrote.
Secondary sanctions on Turkish banks
In July, Russian media reported that supplies of goods from Turkey to Russia fell by nearly a third due to payment problems. Bilateral trade was negatively impacted by the risk of the US imposing so-called secondary sanctions on Turkish banks accepting payments from Russia.
At the end of 2023, US President Joe Biden enabled the imposition of so-called secondary sanctions on banks from third countries for cooperating with Russian entities under sanctions and supporting the Russian defence industry.
