Business called the ways of "embroidery" of international payments

The legalization of foreign trade settlements in cryptocurrency and the expansion of the list of organizations that have the right to work with foreign banks can help businesses cope with financial constraints.consider the participants in the discussion in the RSPP

Representatives of large Russian companies, business associations and financial organizations proposed possible schemes for establishing alternative settlements with foreign counterparties in the face of sanctions pressure. The discussion took place within the framework of the commission of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on banks and banking activities (RBC followed the broadcast). it is assumed that the voiced initiatives will be summarized and sent for consideration to the government, the Central Bank, the State Duma.

The disconnection of a number of Russian banks from SWIFT, the exclusion of sanctioned credit institutions from correspondent relationships with foreign partners and a number of other sanctions-related restrictions have led to the fact that many Russian companies today face barriers to foreign trade, said the DIRECTOR of the financial policy and Financial Markets RSPP Andrey Lisitsyn. According to preliminary data from a survey conducted by the business association, such difficulties were reported by the majority of exporters - about 60%. Restrictions are most often manifested in the refusal to conduct transactions, as well as in the blocking of transactions and the termination of contracts, which leads to a significant increase in the timing of payments or their complete halt.

What the business offers

During the discussion, the participants proposed a number of steps that, in their opinion, can normalize the situation.

Legalize foreign trade settlements in cryptocurrency.

“In connection with the imposed sanctions, Severstal and its subsidiaries are faced with the fact that correspondent banks from unfriendly countries refuse to make payments in favor of the company or on its behalf, arguing that the beneficiary [Alexey Mordashov] is under sanctions,” — complained the manager of "Severstal Management" Gleb Khudanov. He suggested developing a regulatory framework for the circulation of cryptocurrencies in RUSSIA, allowing domestic legal entities to buy, sell and exchange them, and also use them as a means of payment in settlements with foreign counterparties.

Currently, the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia has not been fully regulated. The Ministry of Finance has developed a bill in which it proposes to allow cryptocurrencies as an investment tool (while still excluding their use as a means of payment). The Central Bank proposes to ban the circulation of cryptocurrency in Russia.

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The position of the manager of Severstal was supported by Evgeny Markin, director of the electronic business department of SKS bank. “There really is a request from businesses for settlements in cryptocurrencies, it clearly sounds: We do not want to pay in dollars and euros, other countries do not want to accept rubles. Why is it impossible to use cryptocurrency in international settlements, if it is right to legalize it? - It would be possible to buy the required amount of cryptocurrency on the Russian exchange, draw up a transaction passport, transfer to a counterparty company and receive goods or services. Such a scheme was used before, only with the DOLLAR and the euro,” he suggested.

If we talk about the short term, it is already possible to use cryptocurrency in such jurisdictions as Kazakhstan (they have special legal solutions for this), as well as Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Andrey Mikhailishin, CEO of Digital Payments (resident of Skolkovo ", including works with crypto-currencies). There are models that allow domestic companies not to bring cryptocurrencies into Russian jurisdiction and not work directly with them, but at the same time use them as an international segment to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the West, he stated.

Earlier it was reported that the proposal to allow Russian companies to pay for export-import operations in cryptocurrency was made by the Federal Tax Service. The Ministry of Finance partially supported the initiative.

Large crypto exchanges take their sanctions obligations very seriously, George Voloshin, director of the French branch of the consulting company Aperio Intelligence, told RBC. He noted that in recent years, the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the world is rather tightened, and they themselves have long been equated with savings and fixed assets at the FATF level (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering).

Crypto exchange Binance will stop accepting Mastercard and Visa from Russia

Allow non-bank credit institutions to open correspondent accounts with foreign banks.

In the context of sanctions, it is extremely important that as many market participants as possible work in the cross-border direction, and of different sizes, said Maria Mikhailova, executive director of the National Payment Association. In her opinion, it is decentralization that will help to circumvent the restrictions.

“We are seeing an active flow of business from large sanctioned banks to regional ones. And for the latter, this is a chance. It is easier for small regional banks and non-bank credit organizations to open foreign correspondent accounts, because they, conditionally, do not serve a large commodity business, ”she stated.

However, there is an obstacle: non-bank credit organizations do not have the right to open foreign accounts - this is directly prohibited by the Central Bank. “If earlier it seemed that non-banking credit organizations are a worthless appendix of the banking system, now their time has come. If we create the appropriate tools, we could get a flexible segment of cross-border interaction,” Mikhailova believes.

Expand cross-border financial messaging systems.

This is a good financial decision in order to support trade, including with the EAEU countries, Mikhailishin believes. Participants of the RSPP survey also agree with him: 60% of the exporters surveyed spoke in favor of expanding the systems of financial information transmission that are resistant to sanctions.

SPFS is a Russian analogue of SWIFT, which has existed since 2014. The system was created, among other things, so that banks could make payments within the country under sanctions. Among its participants there are also foreign organizations (all Belarusian banks joined it, four from Kyrgyzstan, two banks each from Armenia and Kazakhstan, one each from Tajikistan and Cuba), but the main share is Russian. According to the Central Bank, in 2020 monthly traffic in SPFS amounted to about 2 million messages, or more than 20% of the traffic of domestic messages that went through SWIFT. Now there are more than 330 participants in SPFS.

What business is already doing to organize alternative settlements

According to the RSPP survey, large companies have taken two main steps to resist the sanctions pressure.

Changed contract currencies and settlements to rubles or “non-sanction currencies”.

Interest in the euro fell significantly, slightly less interest in the dollar, said Alexander Murychev, vice president of the RSPP.

Refocused on CHINA , India and Turkey.

“Obviously, these are trading hubs and all logistics are already going in that direction,” Murychev explained.

To minimize secondary sanctions risks, the Russian authorities allowed companies to remove a significant part of corporate information from the public field, and also suspended the publication of a number of foreign economic statistics, such as imports and exports of goods by country and category. The Ministry of Finance has prepared and posted on the portal regulation.gov.ru a draft government decree in which it proposes to allow a wide range of companies to close their accounts for an indefinite period (such decisions will be made on the recommendation of the relevant department). 

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