Foreign banks. Opening a foreign account. Foreign banks in Russia - list, features, percentages and reviews Bank with foreign participation

According to Russian law, foreign banks in Russia cannot open their branches, but they can have shares in Russian banks. In other words, foreign banks can open subsidiaries in Russia, which are essentially Russian banks, only their founders are wholly or partially foreign.

Such banks operate according to Russian laws:

• are checked, obeyed and accounted for Central Bank Russia,
• make mandatory contributions to the reserve fund.

That is, they are in an equal position with Russian banks, so it would be more correct to say not foreign banks, but banks with foreign participation.

List of main Russian banks with foreign participation

UniCredit Bank

100% of shares belong to UniCredit S.p.A. (Italy)

Basic facts about the bank:

• The bank was created in the USSR in 1989 on October 19.
• The original name was International Moscow Bank.
• Became the first Russian bank with foreign capital.
• Registration number of the general banking license is 1.
• Until October 2016, the sole shareholder was UniCredit Bank Austria AG; now UniCredit S.p.A. is a direct participant in the bank.
• Included in the list of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation of systemically important banks.
• It is the largest Russian bank.

Rosbank/DeltaCredit/Rusfinance Bank

Banks are included in the group Societe Generale(France).

• Rosbank is the largest and systemically important bank in Russia.
• DeltaCredit deals only with mortgage loans.
• Rusfinance Bank specializes in issuing consumer loans.

Raiffeisenbank

99.96718% owned by Raiffeisen Bank International AG (Austria)

Facts about the bank:

• Raiffeisenbank was created in Russia in 1996, and in 2007 IMPEXBank was merged with it.
• Systemically important bank.

Interesting bank products:

• — long long period, free of charge service.

Citibank

100% belong American Citigroup.

Eastern Bank

51.62% - Evison Holdings Limited (Cyprus), 32.02% - FINVISION HOLDINGS LIMITED (Cyprus).

Home Credit and Finance Bank

• It is a leader in retail lending.
• Offers - an analogue of Conscience and Halva, but unlike them, installment plans are available in any store, and not just in partner stores.

OTP Bank

Part of the OTP Group (Hungary).

OTP Bank is interesting as the creator of the online bank Touch Bank. Touch Bank does not have offices; service occurs remotely. Touch Bank operates under a license from OTP Bank.

The most popular product is with cashback and accrual of income on the balance. The card has two tariffs: Limited with free service and Daily 2.0 with conditionally free service and extended functionality.

The bank also offers a credit card with very favorable conditions for the borrower.

Setelem Bank

79.2% of shares belong to Sberbank, 20.8% to BNP Paribas S. A group (France)

The bank specializes in consumer lending in retail stores and car dealers.

Credit Europe Bank

99.99931973% of shares belong to Credit Europe Bank N.V. (Holland)

These banks are the largest among Russian banks; the share of foreign companies in them is significant.

Foreign banks in Russia inspire the greatest confidence among depositors, after.

Nina Polonskaya

In July, the license of the financial institution was revoked. Meanwhile, practice shows that such lawsuits do not end well for the former owners of credit institutions and the chances of winning are zero. However, this time it is not so simple. The fact is that the lawsuit was filed by David Gaon, a representative of the rather famous Gaon family, which became famous for many years of litigation with Russia over a contract for the supply of food in exchange for oil. News.ru figured out which of the top 50 Russian banks are related to foreign financial institutions.

It is important to understand that credit organizations with foreign capital are fully subject to Russian legislation. Foreign participation means that a certain block of shares in the bank belongs to a foreign owner. Foreign banks cannot directly open their branches in Russia; they can own a Russian legal entity and operate in the format of a “subsidiary” organization.

UniCredit Bank - largest bank in Russia with foreign capital. All voting shares of the bank belong to the Austrian division of the Italian financial group UniCredit. Has been working in the Russian Federation since 1989. Initially it was called the International Moscow Bank (IMB). It is noteworthy that it was the first Russian credit and financial organization with Western capital. Its founders were five foreign banks: Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank (HVB), Creditanstalt-Bankverein, BancaCommercialeItaliana, CreditLyonnais and Kansallis-Osaki-Pankki. Currently, the credit institution is actively developing its branch network and retail business. One of the main areas of the bank's work is also servicing companies. It has 13 branches, 12 representative offices in Russia and one in Belarus, as well as more than 60 additional and 16 operational offices. The number of employees as of July 1, 2017 was 4,540 people. The bank serves more than 27.8 thousand corporate and about 1.9 million private clients.

Global Look Press/ZUMAPRESS.com/Jaap Arriens

Raiffeisenbank ranks second in the list of largest banks with foreign owners. Today, the sole shareholder of the bank is Raiffeisen Bank International AG (100% share). Raiffeisenbank was founded in 1996 as a bank with entirely Austrian capital under the name "Raiffeisenbank Austria". The organization consists of five branches: in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Krasnodar; more than 120 additional offices, two operating cash desks outside the cash desk and 54 operational offices. It serves more than 80 thousand legal entities. Plastic card owners have 1,300 ATMs at their disposal, as well as a partner ATM network (Gazprombank, Moscow Credit Bank, Rosbank, Rosselkhozbank, Uralsib, Energotransbank, UniCredit Bank). In addition, in June 2016, the bank merged its ATM network with the B&N Bank ATM network. As of July 1, 2017, the bank had 7,843 employees.

News.ru/Sergey Bulkin

In third place is Rosbank. It was founded in 1993 and was then called “Independence”. During the 1998 crisis, it was bought by the industrial and financial group Interros. Today, the holder of 99.95% of the shares is the French banking group Societe Generale. The remaining 0.05% belongs to minority shareholders. In 2017, its network included 365 sales offices. The bank provides all types of services to private clients and organizations in 70 regions of the Russian Federation. Today, 10 thousand people work here (excluding subsidiary banks and companies). In total 4 million are served individuals and 80 thousand corporate clients.

News.ru/Sergey Bulkin

Citibank, which is in penultimate place in the top 5 Russian banks with foreign owners, arose in 1993, initially as a bank with entirely foreign capital. Citibank is a subsidiary of the American Citigroup. In Russia, it has 11 branches in Moscow, three in St. Petersburg and one in several cities with a population of over a million, such as, for example, Ufa, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg and others. Behind last years The bank reduced its presence in Russia and cut approximately half of its offices. In 2017, more than 3,100 employees worked here. The credit institution services more than 600 thousand individuals and over 3,000 companies. For “physicists” the bank offers the following services: savings and savings accounts, deposits, loans, debit and credit cards, money transfers and others. For companies - services for transactions with securities, collection, letters of credit, lending, etc.

AGN "Moscow"/Andrey Nikerichev

Eastern Bank

Last on our list is Eastern Bank. It was founded in 1991 in the city of Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region. Currently, the shares of the financial institution also belong to foreign holders. Thus, 51.62% of the bank’s shares are owned by the Baring Vostok fund. In addition to the head office in Blagoveshchensk, the bank has eight branches in Russian cities, 129 additional offices, several operational cash desks and about 500 operational offices. The number of employees in 2017 was over 9 thousand people. For legal entities, the bank offers services: lending, corporate deposits, bank guarantees, salary projects, etc. For private clients - plastic cards, deposits, electronic services, money transfers and others.

To summarize, we would like to add that there are now several dozen banks operating in Russia with partial or full foreign capital. Among them there are both small and quite large. Some have a rather narrow specialization, in particular, they provide car lending services (for example,

Keeping money in a foreign bank– an option on how to protect your funds from surprises in the domestic economy.

The main purpose of depositing abroad is the reliable preservation of funds. Rates abroad are low, mostly 1-2%, and only in some places – up to 5%. Western financial institutions have strict conditions for early termination of deposits, as well as high taxes on interest.

Many people set a high threshold for depositing funds (especially in Switzerland) – 10-25 thousand euros. The minimum guarantee amount (payment of compensation to the investor in the event of bankruptcy) according to European Union standards is at least 20,000 euros. In some countries it reaches 100,000 euros, for example, in Lithuania. Placing money abroad is beneficial for those who study or work there, as well as those who own a business or buy real estate.

For many years, Russians placed deposits in Cyprus. But after problems in the country's banking system, when many lost money, his popularity decreased. Placement of funds in the Baltic states is now common.

Also known among investors are countries such as Germany, Austria and Denmark, and the classic of the genre - Switzerland, where there are very low rates and a large minimum deposit. Deposits in foreign banks, the interest rates of which are very low, are considered as a way to safely store money, but not to earn money.

The proposal for deposits by country is as follows.

1. In Cyprus, the best offers reach 4.5% (individually up to 6%) per annum in $ - Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus Popular Bank Ltd, and AlphBank.
2. In Latvia, Citadele Bank is interesting, offering up to 3% per annum in $. BIGBANK announces up to 2.65% in euros.
3. USA: Edward and Jones Vanguard Group offer up to 2.96% in dollars.
4. In the UK, Bank of London and the Middle East announces up to 2.8% on sterling.
5. Italy. ING Direct Italia in euros – 1.4%.
6. Belgium - ING Belgium – 1.25% (euro).
7. Deposits in Germany: ING DiBa offers Euro rates of up to 1% per annum.
8. Sweden – Nordea raises funds at 1% in Swedish krona.
9. Netherlands. ABN AMRO for deposits in euros – up to 1% per annum.
10. Switzerland. Postfinance Bank – 0.15% per annum in Swiss francs. Of the deposits in Switzerland, this is the most advantageous offer, taking into account the costs of servicing the deposit. Credit Suisse has the highest rates in Switzerland (0.72%), but service costs exceed income.

The main requirement of foreign financial institutions for non-resident depositors is transparency of the source of origin of money. Therefore, the verification of this factor is very serious. Will be required different types certificates and statements different from the usual documents accompanying the opening of a deposit.

Recommendations from a domestic bank are welcome if it is a subsidiary of a foreign one. Recommendations from business partners who collaborate with this institution will also be very helpful. If the depositor has a business in the country where the deposit is placed, this is a big plus.

A high minimum deposit threshold (thousands of dollars) excludes people with low and moderate incomes.

To open an account in a foreign bank you must:

1. Select the appropriate country, bank (reliability rating “A”) and type of deposit.
2. Enter into correspondence to clarify the opening conditions (in person or with the help of intermediaries).
3. Collect the necessary documents (in person or through intermediaries), have them translated, and notarized.
4. Send documents to the bank.
5. Get a positive decision (or refusal).
6. If the decision is positive, sign the agreement by traveling abroad (for VIP clients, the bank can send its own clerk).
7. Place money.
8. Provide local authorities with all necessary information about opening an account abroad.

Starting from 2015, citizens who have placed funds abroad are required to submit information about the movement of funds in their accounts to the tax office every quarter. These reports must be accompanied by supporting documents translated into Russian and notarized.

The opening and closing of an account abroad must be reported to the tax office at your place of residence within a month (otherwise you will face a fine of 5,000 rubles).

You can transfer funds to the deposit only through Russian financial institutions.

• Calculate all income/expenses so as not to end up at a loss. Low interest rates on deposits, as well as the cost of servicing it, commissions for transferring funds and withdrawing them, converting them, lead to the fact that when placing less than 50 thousand dollars, the investor may be in the red.
• If a foreign bank does not give consent and requests more and more documents, then in this way it tells the depositor that it is undesirable for them to place a deposit. Abroad, it is not customary to talk about this directly.

*Data update date – April 2015.

There are many banks in Russia with foreign participation (usually close to 100%) - the largest in terms of capitalization are Unicreditbank, Raiffeisenbank and Rosbank:

Full list Here: http://www.bankodrom.ru/inostrannye-banki-v-rossii-spisok/. However, according to the law of the Russian Federation, they are not branches and representative offices of foreign banks, but exist in the form of subsidiaries of Russian banks. This imposes additional risks on their activities, which have already led to withdrawal from the market - as did Morgan Stanley or Rabobank Groep NV.

It is known that William Buffett quickly abandoned doing business in Russia when faced with corruption. According to many Russians, foreign banks outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation are more reliable institutions that can guarantee the safety of client funds even in a very difficult economic situation in Russia. Let's consider the issue related to the conditions and possibility of opening accounts in foreign banks by Russians .

Advantages of opening a current account abroad

Many businessmen practice this method of ensuring the safety of their funds, such as transferring them to - this makes it possible not only to hide and save money, but also to profitably reduce the tax base. Often, when opening an offshore company, a bank account (of the same or another offshore) is attached to it free of charge. Among European offshores with stronger regulation of banking activities, Russians prefer to use the services of banks in Liechtenstein, Andorra, Switzerland and Cyprus.

There are advantages and disadvantages to offshore accounts. As advantages you can note:

Complete confidentiality of the account holder is ensured

Full protection against possible domestic risks is guaranteed

You can open an account without leaving the country

However, in addition to the advantages, a number of shortcomings :

opening a bank account (as opposed to a brokerage account) must be registered with the tax office

as a rule, foreign banks accept large sums of money

a foreign bank may meticulously examine the origin of funds

sometimes the bank tries to impose its own banking products on the client

Today the ECB rate is zero, i.e. the deposit rate is also near zero or even negative

Additionally, it should be noted that when choosing a suitable foreign bank, it is necessary to soberly assess the state of the economy and the presence of political problems in the state.

How to choose a foreign bank

A potential client of a foreign bank should understand that any financial institution charges a certain fee for its services. Opening an account is also a paid procedure and each bank has individual tariffs.

In fact, opening a bank account in many countries of the world today is just a matter of the amount of input capital and costs, although for Russians the imposed sanctions play a certain role. Examples of some foreign banks available to Russians, indicating the cost of opening an account, are presented in the table below:

Tariffs for opening an account in foreign banks

In the European zone, it is most profitable for Russians to open an account in the Baltics, where we can talk about several thousand euros. In other European countries, the average entry threshold for opening a deposit is foreign citizens is 50 thousand euros - although the larger the amount you are willing to invest, the wider the circle of foreign banks will be ready to open an account for you.

The most affordable conditions are offered by Chinese banks, which require only 20 yuan or 200 rubles for opening an account. The entry threshold is 1,000 yuan or 100,000 rubles. The possibility of deposit insurance appeared there on May 1, 2015 and amounts to a quite decent 500,000 yuan (at the time of the article this is approximately $72,500, i.e. almost three times more than in Russia), and both deposits in yuan and and in foreign currency. Payment must be made within a week from the date insured event. In terms of quality of service with online banking, some recommend China Everbright Bank - however, the downside is that you need a personal presence in China. The necessary information can be obtained from branches of Chinese banks in Russia - for example, in Moscow at Prospekt Mira, 72.

Separately, we can highlight the Danish Saxobank, about which I wrote an article. Despite the name, Saxobank is in fact a broker, not a bank, which leads to a low entry threshold of 10,000 euros. The consequence of a brokerage license is the lack of a deposit account and the introduction of an inactivity fee by the company. However, in conditions of zero euro rates, there is practically no difference when storing funds.

Procedure for opening an account in a foreign bank

More recently, citizens of the Russian Federation received the opportunity to open a current account in some foreign banks without personal presence in remote mode. To become an account owner you will need to complete the following steps:

1 . Select a suitable foreign bank

3. Wait for the bank's decision and pay the cost of the service

4 . Receive account details and place the minimum balance on it

Choosing the right bank is not a rhetorical form at all. For example, the Cyprus crisis of 2013 affected the entire banking system of the country, necessitating restrictions on the circulation of capital. A number of investors whose funds exceeded 100,000 euros found themselves at a loss. The easiest way to insure against such a situation is to check (and periodically monitor) the bank.

An additional advantage for clients of a foreign institution is the ability to use a service such as Internet banking. This makes it possible to manage your accounts remotely. Within a month after opening the account, it is necessary to notify the tax service, which will issue a notification, which is the basis for transferring funds to another country.

Documents for opening a foreign bank account

Each foreign bank has a specific list of documents that must be submitted to open a current account. These include in particular:

• copy of passport certified by a notary
• original certificate of residence
• resume for English language in the prescribed form
• documents about the citizen’s sources of income
• a certificate from a bank providing services to the client in his country

All documents are provided in the form of scanned copies and require mandatory certification using an electronic digital signature. Opening an account after receiving all necessary documents usually happens within a week unless there is some suspicious information.

What companies help you open accounts abroad?

In practice, people tend to reduce their participation in various procedures for opening/closing accounts or paperwork to a minimum. That is why the services of companies that can independently perform all the necessary actions are in special demand. There are quite a lot of them.

For example, opening accounts abroad for Russians is carried out by Alfa-Bank, VTB24, as well as other Russian banks. An international company like Heritage Group has been doing this for more than ten years. She specializes in this issue and also serves organizations of various types.

When it comes to insuring deposit amounts, European banks typically insure deposits up to €100,000, while in the US this threshold is $250,000. For deposits in German banks, the refund is 100%.

Currently, the deposit rate for both euros and dollars is close to zero - and there is every reason to assume that this situation will continue over the next few years. Therefore, I would suggest both owners of foreign bank accounts and those who want to become one to think about creating a more effective investment portfolio instead of a passive storage of currencies.

A number of banks also provide brokerage services - in addition, it is not very difficult to transfer accounts from a foreign bank to a foreign broker, whose requirements for accepting funds are usually more flexible. At the same time, the insurance protection of brokerage accounts is higher - for American stock brokers it is $500,000, and for investment insurance companies using the unit linked method it has no restrictions at all.

The majority of citizens in our country are quite skeptical about the domestic banking system. And if we talk in simple words, then they do not trust modern commercial Russian banks. This is probably due to the fact that the financial system of our country leaves much to be desired, because in recent years our country has been in a crisis. But foreign companies, on the contrary, attract potential clients, and Lately are in active demand. Are there foreign banks in Russia? We will definitely consider a list of them below.

Are there foreign organizations in Russia

According to the legislation of our country, it is prohibited to open branches of foreign banks on the territory of the Russian Federation. From this we can conclude that foreign banks cannot exist in Russia for individuals.

However, according to the law of our country, it is not prohibited to open subsidiaries on the territory of Russia, the share of the capital of which will belong to non-residents of the Russian Federation. But the nuance is that all financial organizations operating in Russia are required to act strictly according to the law of the Russian Federation and are completely subordinate to the Central Bank of Russia.

Are there foreign banks in Russia? Formally there are no branches, but there are quite a few a large number of financial organizations that are subsidiaries of foreign organizations.

List of foreign banks in Russia

In fact, there are quite a lot of credit and financial institutions in Russia that were organized as subsidiaries of foreign companies. In total, the list contains about 69 names of commercial organizations operating in Russia; their authorized capital belongs to foreign financial groups. In addition, many of them work exclusively with legal entities, and we will consider only a small list of those that provide services to individuals and occupy high positions in the ranking of our country.

UniCredit-bank

This organization began its activities since the times of the Soviet Union, or to be more precise, it began its activities in 1989, at that time it was called the International Moscow Bank. In 2007, it was renamed UniCredit-bank and became one of the most large network banks, covering more than 22 countries throughout Europe. The share of the authorized capital is 100% owned by the financial group UniCredit S.p.A, and its legal address is 00186, Italy, Rome, Via A. Specchi 16, today the bank ranks 12th in the ranking.

Interesting! General license of UniCredit-Bank in Russia No. 0001 of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. This means that he was the first to receive a license to carry out financial activities in Russia.

Raiffeisen Bank

The list of European banks in Russia is quite extensive and also includes one of the largest financial organizations in our country, Raiffeisen Bank. It appeared in our country in 1996, although in fact its history goes back to the mid-19th century. The founder of the financial group is Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The share of foreign capital is 99.96718%, it belongs to Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich. Legal address Austria, 1030 Vienna am Stadtpark 9. The headquarters of the Russian subsidiary is located in Moscow. The bank occupies 13th position in the ranking and specializes in servicing both legal entities and individuals.

Rosbank

Rosbank, quite well known in our country, is also a subsidiary of the French Financial Group. The share of foreign capital is 99.9508%. The company belongs to the financial group Societe Generale S.A. The company appeared in our country quite a long time ago, more precisely in 1998, the holding company Interros bought out the bank AKB Independence and renamed it Rosbank, in 2006 the stakes were sold in parts to the French financial group and Société Générale. To the extent that more than 99% of the shares belong to a foreign financial group, it exercises complete control over the activities of a Russian commercial bank. In Russia, Rosbank occupies 14th position in the ranking.

Citibank

It is also a fairly large and well-known bank in our country, founded by the largest financial group, Citigroup Inc. This financial group was founded in the United States of America back in 1812. At the moment, 100% of the shares belong to this financial group. It received general license number 2557 on October 5, 2001. Citibank specializes in servicing individuals and legal entities. Currently, Citibank ranks 21st in the ranking. The headquarters is located in Moscow.

Interesting! The first branch of Citibank in Russia appeared in 1993, and was one of the first financial institutions with foreign capital. Although, according to some sources, the name of the financial institution was first mentioned back in 1917, its branch was opened in two cities, Petrograd and Moscow, but after October revolution all financial institutions were nationalized.

Home Credit Bank

This bank is known in our country as one of the leaders in consumer lending for individuals. It belongs to the international investment financial group PPF registered in Amsterdam, which was founded by Czech billionaire Petr Kellner. The bank appeared in Russia in 2002. Initially, he specialized in targeted loans issued at retail outlets. In 2002, Home Credit Bank entered into an agreement with trading network Eldorado issued the first credit card in 2004, and in 2005 opened its own office and issued the first consumer loan. The share of foreign capital is 99.9919%, it belongs to the financial group Home Credit B.V., which is located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the city of Amsterdam.

OTP bank

The financial institution belongs to the Hungarian financial group OTP Group. A share of the authorized capital of 66.1610% belongs to the financial group OTP Group, another 31.7078% belongs to AllianceReserve LLC, 1.2% to MFB Invest, less than 1% to other shareholders. It was registered in Russia in 2008, and a year later it took second place in issuing consumer loans; it currently ranks 53rd in the ranking.

Rusfinance-Bank

This Russian commercial Bank not so popular in Russia, it occupies only 63rd place in the ranking of Russian banks. If we talk about its share of capital, it is 100% owned by PJSC Rosbank, and, as mentioned earlier, it is a bank with foreign capital owned by the French financial group Societe Generale S.A. The main activity of the bank is issuing consumer loans, car loans and credit cards; in 2011, the bank took first place in terms of the volume of car loans issued through a network of car dealers. Today it is one of the three largest banks specializing in car loans. It was acquired by the company in 2006; to be more precise, it was created on the basis of Promek-Bank.

Credit Europe Bank

It was created in 2007 on the basis of Financebank. Today it is one of the largest commercial credit and financial institutions in Russia, which ranks 58th in the ranking of commercial banks in Russia. The share of foreign capital is 99.99931973%, the shares belong to the large international financial group FIBA, and its owner is Turkish billionaire Hüsnü Özegin.

Deltacredit

This Russian commercial bank, its activity is mortgage lending. It, like PJSC Rosbank, is part of the financial group Societe Generale S.A. It began its activities in our country in 1998 under the name J.P. Morgan-Bank, and in 2005, through reorganization, it was merged into the French financial group. 100% of shares belong to PJSC Rosbank.

Subsidiaries of foreign companies in Russia

So, as stated earlier, there cannot be foreign financial organizations in our country by law. After all, all credit and financial institutions located on the territory of Russia are required to act exclusively within the framework of our legislation and obtain a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. By the way, it should be noted that the list of foreign banks in Russia includes some other large organizations specializing in servicing individuals and legal entities, among them:

• Toyota Bank (Japan);
• Plus-Bank (Kazakhstan);
• Mercedes-Benz-Bank Rus (Germany);
• Commerzbank (Eurasia) (Germany);
• Volkswagen-Bank Rus (Germany);
• Bank of China (China);

Please note that if we talk about the reliability of foreign banks, there is undoubtedly large banks with foreign capital in Russia, but if you look at the rating, the leading positions are still occupied by Russian banks such as Sberbank, VTB24, Rosselkhozbank, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, Promsvyazbank. As for the subsidiaries of foreign enterprises, they are not among the ten most reliable banks in Russia.

To summarize, foreign organizations work with great success in Russia and do not intend to leave the domestic market in the near future. Even though the economic and geopolitical situation is quite unstable, the subsidiaries of foreign companies are only strengthening their positions in our market and expanding their branch network.