Belarusian MFA asks European banks to come back

The European banks, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and RBS, which terminated cooperation with Belarus in 2011, “decided to anticipate things”, the Belarusian deputy foreign minister thinks.

Alyaksandr Huryanau, the Belarusian deputy foreign minister, made this statement at a press conference in Minsk on Tuesday, Interfax news agency reports.

“As for the restrictions relating to banking business, it was a decision of certain banks that decided to anticipate things,” the Belarusian diplomat said commenting on a decision of a number of banks to stop cooperation with Belarus.

“What concerns these three banks [Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and The Royal Bank of Scotland – Interfax], the fact that the US sanctions are imposed on some Belarusian companies also played its part. These banks decided to uphold the position of their major clients in the US. It was their personal decision,” Alyaksandr Huryanau said. He thinks Belarus suffered to a lesser extent, but it was the banks deprived of financial flows from Belarus that suffered. “We hope this decision will be revised,” the representative of the Belarusian MFA concluded.

Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and The Royal Bank of Scotland halted cooperation with the Belarusian authorities on political motives. These banks and Russian Sberbank issued $1.8bn in Belarusian state bonds in 2010 and early 2011.

The US economic sanctions against Belarus were imposed in November 2007 affecting a number of big enterprises owned by Belteftekhim concern, its foreign branches and subsidiary Belneftekhim USA.