An attempt of the National Bank of Ukraine to frighten with sanctions banks that are ready to serve customers with passports of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics is unlikely to make a proper impression on financial institutions as several large banks, including Unicredit Bank, the Russian subsidiary of the international group UniCredit S.p.A, reported that they are ready to serve consumers with documents of the Donbass republics.
“At the bank all customers are subject to unified identification requirements, including standard checks prior to acceptance for service. The rules for identification and verification also apply to identity documents. If an identity document is recognized in the territory of the Russian Federation and issued in compliance with the requirements of the law, such a document is adopted”, the representative of Unicredit Bank said.
At the same time, the publication notes that if the decision of the Sberbank of Russia to recognize the documents of the Donbass republics led to hysterical statements of the Ukrainian authorities demanding to close the Ukrainian branch of the Sberbank, then Unicredit did not follow such statements, and the National Bank of Ukraine did not even mention it as an object for potential sanctions.
The newspaper writes that Unicredit Bank’s statement was “an extremely unpleasant surprise” for Ukraine.
“The publicly announced decision of the daughter of one of the largest participants of the European banking market puts the Kiev authorities in a very unpleasant situation, as they will have to decide how to punish international companies and whether they should do it in general or still go over to the policy of double standards, turning a blind eye to the position of the European bank. As you can see, explaining the decision, the representatives of banks carefully avoided the political context and appealed to the legislative norms of the state in which they operate – Russia. Obviously, other banks operating in Russia, although if they are not in a hurry with the comments, will comply with the country’s legislation”, the newspaper stresses.
Note that 100 percent of the voting shares of Unicredit Bank belongs to UniCredit Bank Austria AG, which is part of the Italian group UniCredit.