FSB worries about lack of foreign currency in russian banks – intercept

russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) sees a threat of a shortage of foreign currency in the russian banking system, most of whose major participants are under Western sanctions.

Source. This is stated in the interception of internal communications of the FSB, The Washington Post reports, citing the leak of classified US intelligence materials to the network.

According to the document, FSB officers are concerned about the lack of currency in banks, as well as the prospects for trade with China.

The United States may impose secondary sanctions on Chinese companies doing business in russia, and the FSB is calling for any such deals to be kept secret.

According to the Central Bank of the russian Federation, russian banks are experiencing an outflow of foreign currency funds from clients on a scale that statistics have never seen before in history.

Last year, russian citizens withdrew about $40 billion from their accounts, reducing their total to the lowest level in more than 10 years.

Corporations, meanwhile, preferred to keep their commodity revenues in offshore accounts – almost $100 billion was deposited in EU banks alone, according to the Institute of International Finance.

As a result, the russian foreign exchange market periodically experienced shortages of dollars, euros and yuan.

Background. As reported, the russian Gazprombank is deepening its ties with Indian banks.

Meanwhile, it became known that the EU had allowed russia's Rosselkhozbank to transfer funds abroad – the bank's exemption from sanctions was one of the conditions for russia to continue the grain deal.