The Association of Russian Banks explains the situation mainly for purely economic reasons.
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The Russians have a new problem. As alarming in today’s news, most of our major banks have stopped accepting dollars and euros through their ATMs.
Marked “KP” – it is really impossible to withdraw or deposit “unfriendly” coins through the ATM network of Sberbank and VTB. Only rubles. Admittedly, it’s hard to call it big news: it’s been like that since last year. Similarly, from one point or another, and in most other banks. And not only those who fell under European and American sanctions. Even in subsidiaries of foreign banks, the same. At Raiffeisenbank, for example, since this spring it is impossible to deposit foreign currency through an ATM.
Who is the most persistent? Alfa-Bank ATMs continue to accept both dollars and euros. But they don’t give up. A search of the bank’s website throughout Moscow for an ATM with the condition “withdraw dollars” returned “nothing found.”
You can still deposit and withdraw dollars and euros at Tinkoff ATMs. But for depositing cash, this bank has introduced a commission from June 5, 2023 (the amount can vary from 4% or more – you will see this figure on the ATM screen). The commission is taken if the money is deposited in the account in the same currency. That is, dollars – for the dollar, euro – for the euro (if it is for the ruble, then there will be no commission, only a conversion fee).
The Association of Russian Banks explains the situation mainly for purely economic reasons. The fuss of ensuring currency acceptance through ATMs is becoming less profitable.
– This did not happen suddenly, it is rather a cumulative process. And there is nothing surprising in this. If banks are excluded from the international circulation of currencies, then it makes no sense for them to work with the corresponding currencies. It’s just not profitable. And the demand is declining, people also have less reason to use the currency, – said on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio (radiokp.ru) Garegin Tosunyan, president of the Russian Banking Association, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
What to do if you still need to deposit dollars or euros into your account?
In the call centers of the banks that I managed to contact, they say that there is no particular problem: come to the branch, to the cashier. This option is still maintained.
– It depends on the bank, there is no centralized decision in this regard. Most likely, the coin will be accepted through the box, explains Garegin Tosunyan. – But later, when you need to withdraw this currency, they will offer to convert it into rubles.
They reminded me in one of the call centers that so far the restrictions are still in force: you can withdraw up to 10,000 greenbacks in dollars from an account opened before September 9, 2022. Or on the same terms: the equivalent amount from the account in euros. The rest is just rubles. I was also strongly recommended to clarify before the visit whether the department has the opportunity to issue the required amount of currency or it must be requested.
