Hundreds of Russians living in Cyprus have lost their accounts in the island's largest bank, Hellenic.
Source. This was reported by The Moscow Times with reference to Main Partner Trust, a company that provides legal and consulting services.
It is specified that these are citizens with "Cypriot documents" who are not tax residents of Russia. Their operating companies were also affected by the closure of their accounts. The bank did not provide any reasons for its decision.
Hellenic is the fourth largest bank in Cyprus by assets. Earlier, the credit institution announced its intention to comply with the sanctions against Russia imposed due to Russia's war against Ukraine.
"Customer monitoring has also increased, with transactions being strictly monitored and verified," the report for the three quarters of 2023 said.
Hellenic Bank offers not only traditional banking products, but also provides a wide range of financial services, including factoring, insurance, portfolio management, investment activities, and more.
Last April, another major bank in Cyprus, Bank of Cyprus, announced the closure of accounts of 4,000 Russians. The decision affected tax residents of the Russian Federation, those who received income from sanctioned businesses, as well as residence permit holders.
After the annexation of Crimea, in the period from 2014 to 2022, Cypriot banks closed accounts of 82% of clients from Russia. The volume of deposits quadrupled – by 76%. In total, 60,000 individuals and legal entities, mostly associated with Russia, were denied banking services. The authorities estimated the amount of funds "expelled" from Cyprus at €43.5 billion.
In January 2024, President of the Republic Nicos Christodoulides said that its close ties with Russian capital were history. He also called the golden passport programme, which provided Cypriot citizenship to investors in the country's economy, a mistake.
In the spring, the island's authorities launched an investigation into the Russian presence, opening a total of 29 cases after the US and UK imposed sanctions in April against 13 firms and individuals found to be hiding billionaires' assets. Among them were Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov.
In December, a "landing party" of FBI agents and the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network arrived in Cyprus to help local authorities figure out how Russians were circumventing sanctions. Against this background, large Russian companies began to leave Cyprus en masse.