European banks are tightening scrutiny of clients holding Russian passports. The first half of 2026 has become the most challenging period for Russians with foreign bank accounts since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This was reported by Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service.<\/p>\n
Account freezes and additional checks are gradually becoming standard practice. The reason is the tightening of sanctions and regulatory requirements for clients from high-risk jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
At the end of January, the European Commission added Russia to the list of countries considered high-risk in terms of money laundering. Following this, major financial institutions and payment services, including Wise, Revolut, N26, Commerzbank, and BNP Paribas, revised their approaches to servicing Russian citizens and people born in Russia.<\/p>\n
Controls are also being tightened in Monaco. The principality is conducting inspections of major banks and financial companies as it seeks to exit the FATF \u201cgrey list.\u201d Particular attention is being paid to clients with unclear sources of funds, potential criminal ties, and suspicious transactions. According to expert estimates, around one-third of problematic clients may be Russian citizens.<\/p>\n
A FATF decision on the future status of Monaco\u2019s banking system is expected at the end of October 2026.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the EU is reforming its system for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. In December, the AMLA is expected to launch large-scale data collection on risks facing financial institutions.<\/p>\n
Against this backdrop, banks are seeking to reduce risks associated with opaque capital. For some Russian clients, this means \u201cadditional checks, restrictions, or termination of cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n
For wealthy Russians, keeping assets in traditional financial centres is becoming more difficult and costly: they are increasingly required to verify the source of their funds, the structure of their assets, and the legality of their transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":152279,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-152278","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/152278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=152278"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=152278"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=152278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}