Financial institutions in Switzerland are charging Russian clients with frozen accounts additional fees in order to access their own fun...
Financial institutions in Switzerland are charging Russian clients with frozen accounts additional fees in order to access their own funds.
This is according to sources within the Swiss banking and legal sectors, who warned that Swiss bankers are extracting exorbitant commissions on blocked assets belonging to Russian citizens, sometimes years in advance -- a move that has raised eyebrows and sparked discussions about the ethics of such practices.
"The idea is that there is an account, it needs to be serviced, and it doesn't matter that a person cannot use the banking service. In fact, it is still provided," said one banker who spoke of the situation with the Russian-language business newspaper Vedomosti. Two sources in Swiss law firms confirmed to Vedomosti that they had also heard of cases of Swiss banks charging exorbitant fees on the frozen funds of Russian citizens.
Only one Swiss financial services company – PostFinance – has confirmed to Vedomosti that it does not charge commissions on seized or frozen Russian funds. Several other financial institutions – including Julius Baer, Pictet Group, UBS, Vontobel and Zurich Cantonal Bank – have refused to respond to requests for confirmations or denials.
Switzerland continues to hold on to $8.8 billion worth of Russian frozen assets
The Swiss government announced on Dec. 1 that, following the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, it froze an estimated 7.7 billion Swiss francs ($8.86 billion) worth of financial assets belonging to Russian citizens and corporations as part of Western-backed sanctions designed to economically punish Moscow.
The figure is a provision estimate as the Swiss government has yet to conduct a proper audit of all of the Russian assets held by Swiss financial institutions. It is also a slight increase from the 7.5 billion francs the government said it had blocked last year after the formerly fully neutral country decided to adopt European Union sanctions.
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the Swiss federal agency overseeing the execution of sanctions against Russia, said the 7.7 billion francs is only an estimate because it is difficult to provide precise figures due to the number of people and corporations being added or removed from the sanctions list, as well as the dozens of ongoing lawsuits making their way through the Swiss legal system to freeze or unlock further assets.
The latest increase in the value of all frozen Russian assets in Switzerland is due to an increase of 300 people and 100 companies and organizations who were added to the sanctions list over the past 12 months. The estimate also includes the estimated profits from cash deposits, bonds, shares as well as seized properties such as homes and luxury cars.
The Swiss government expects to provide a more accurate figure on the value of frozen assets by the end of the second quarter of 2024, when Swiss banks report their financial holdings to the federal government.
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