OREANDA-NEWS More and more Russian banks are no longer opening foreign currency accounts, Izvestia writes with reference to the banks' call centers.

According to the publication, we are talking about Sovcombank, PSB, Rosbank, Otkritie Bank, Raiffeisenbank. It is impossible to open both savings and deposit foreign currency accounts in Sovcombank. Making deposits in foreign currency there was suspended back in May.

Otkritie Bank said that foreign currency deposits have not been available for 1.5 months, and it has been impossible to open accounts since June 15. Rosbank added that they could not say anything about the duration of the restrictions.

Earlier, the chairman of the board of Tinkoff Bank, Stanislav Bliznyuk, spoke about the risks of storing savings in foreign currency. The risks of keeping savings in dollars are related to the fact that Russian banks cannot make dollar payments without using the infrastructure of American banks. The possibilities of the banking sector of the Russian Federation for the storage and investment of currencies are also currently limited.

The introduction of commissions and various restrictions on foreign exchange transactions is not a way for a bank to earn money, but a call to change the patterns of customer behavior, Bliznyuk noted. From the point of view of SWIFT transfers, this is also the only way to preserve the very possibility of currency transfers, since counterparties have significantly tightened working conditions and cut limits on transactions.

At the same time, according to him, there are more available alternatives to savings in foreign currency.