The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has launched an audit of Austrian banking conglomerate Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) in connection with its activities in Russia. On this subject writing Reuters on Friday, February 17.
The RBI confirmed to the agency that in January management received a request from OFAC seeking clarification on the payments and related processes being supported by the organization “in light of recent developments relating to the Russia and Ukraine”.
According to Reuters, a division of the US Treasury has notably asked Raiffeisen Bank International for detailed information on its activities in Donbass, Ukraine and Syria. The agency’s source said the requested information also includes transaction and activity data for certain customers.
OFAC has asked RBI to respond to the request by February, according to a Reuters source, but the bank’s lawyers have agreed to extend that deadline. They promised to answer questions in three blocks of information to be sent out in April, May and June, the source said.
The RBI said the bank is “cooperating fully” with OFAC and is also implementing the sanctions. The representative of the Austrian financial institution assured that the information provided to the US Treasury division would “satisfy the request” of the agency. A US Treasury spokesman declined to comment.
RBI has never been held responsible for breaching sanctions, but OFAC’s request is raising concerns among European financial regulators over possible punitive action against the bank, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. .
Raiffeisenbank, a subsidiary of Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International, is on the list of systemically important Russian banks. The organization is headquartered in Moscow. At the end of 2022, the net profit of RBI amounted to 3.8 billion euros, of which more than half (2 billion euros) provided by the Russian Raiffeisenbank. According to Reuters, Russian depositors have placed more than 20 billion euros in the bank. From 1 February 2023 Banque Raiffeisen stopped accept cash in US dollars and euros at their ATMs. Moreover, on the eve of the publication of Frank Media reported that RBI has limited Russian banks in foreign currency payments, reducing its network of correspondents to five credit institutions.
