UkrSibbank supports embargo on Belarus

UkrSibbank refuses to render services for individuals with Belarusian citizenship.

The reason is the international embargo imposed on Belarus by Ukrsibbank's mother bank – Belgian  BNP Paribas.

“UkrSibnak's exchange office in Kyiv refuses to exchange US dollars to hryvnias. A clerk said the bank did not deal with Belarusians,” a Minsk dweller, who became a victim of the international embargo, told Interfax-Zapad news agency.

As a proof, he showed the news agency a photo of a notification on UkrSibbank's letterhead paper reading “Our bank offers services to clients maximally abiding by international banking standards and acting legislative acts. The Bank performs procedures of the internal policy of BNP Paribas Group regarding the international embargo on the Republic of Belarus. In this regard, the Bank can refuse to perform certain banking operations for you.

A representative of the bank head office in Kyiv, specialist of UkrSibbank's industrial sector Tatyana Gavrilenko confirmed Interfax-Zapad the ban on offering services to individuals with Belarusian citizenship. “Yes, we do not deal with citizens of Belarus. This decision was approved by an internal order of UkrSibbank on the basis of a decision of BNP Paribas on the international embargo on Belarus. We are a part of BNP, so decisions of our mother company are obligatory for UkrSibBank,” Gavrilenko said to an Interfax-Zapad correspondent on the phone. “Among other things, a policy of international embargo imposed by BNP Paribas prohibits to render services to individuals with Belarusian citizenship,” the UkrSibbank representative explained. According to her, the bank doesn't deal with Belarusian entities, but keeps correspondent relations with a number of Belarusian banks.

BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland were reported in late 2011 to have suspended dealing with the Belarusian authorities on political motives. These banks and Russia's Sberbank sold two issues of Belarusian government bonds at a total sum of $1.8 billion in 2010 and early 2011.