Italy’s largest bank cuts euro transfers from Russia but exempts its subsidiary

Starting Jan. 15, 2025, Intesa Sanpaolo will introduce new rules for servicing the correspondent account of its Russian branch. Euro payments will be limited to commercial transactions involving accounts within Intesa Sanpaolo, its subsidiaries, and banks located in Italy.

Earlier reports revealed that the United States imposed sanctions against Russia’s Gazprombank in November. The bank had been processing payments for European countries’ purchases of Russian gas and was the last Russian state-owned bank with access to the SWIFT system and international financial transactions before the sanctions took effect.

Following the sanctions, several exceptions were made for Gazprombank, allowing certain transactions to continue.