Since mid-July, Chinese banks have started refusing to process payments if Russian names are listed in payment documents, according to Alexey Poroshin, CEO of the company "First Group," in an interview with Izvestia.
He explained that importers are now forced to prepare a full set of documents for transactions through third parties to avoid any visible connection to Russia.
Russian names, including those not on sanction lists, any links to Russia, and Cyrillic inscriptions are grounds for payment rejection, confirmed Alexey Razumovsky, commercial director of the company "Impaia Rus." According to him, Chinese partners fear secondary sanctions and increasingly adopt a "zero trust" approach in their dealings with Russian businesses, attempting to eliminate any potential threat.
A source at a business association told Izvestia that the issue arose a few weeks ago and is not yet widespread.
If a Russian name belongs to a citizen of another country, Chinese banks request additional information, including checking for connections with Russian companies, said Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group. If no connection is confirmed, the payment goes through.
The situation with payments from Russia to China deteriorated sharply in December 2023 when U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order imposing secondary sanctions, including on foreign banks, for aiding transactions with sanctioned individuals and Russian defense industry supplies. Following this, major Chinese banks stopped accepting payments from Russia, even in yuan. Smaller regional banks joined them in July and August of this year. As a result, more than 98% of Chinese credit organizations currently do not accept payments from Russian companies.
