Speaking to Izvestia, Alexei Poroshin, a senior manager at portfolio management company First Group, said that some Chinese banks had stopped accepting payments in yuan from Russia.
Poroshin noted that the banks had informed their clients and returned the transactions.
Poroshin noted that the situation has developed over the past two months. The banks that have stopped accepting payments are Ping An Bank and Bank of Ningbo, which rank 13th and 15th in China by capitalisation, as well as China Guangfa Bank, Kunshan Rural Commercial Bank, Great Wall West China Bank, Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank, Dongguan Rural Commercial Bank and China Zheshang Bank.
The newspaper’s source in the Russian banking sector confirmed that the banks in question stopped accepting yuan payments from Russia in mid-January.
The source said that the problem was still ongoing, and stressed that the reason for this was the fear of Chinese banks due to possible secondary sanctions and pressure from the US.
In December, US President Joe Biden signed a decree authorising the Treasury Department to simplify penalties for banks that violate sanctions against Russia.
In response, Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank, the main clearing house for importers in China, suspended its transactions with Russia.
