Banks in Finland will start “scouring” the accounts of Russians

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland obliged domestic banks to provide data on deposits of Russians and Belarusians over 100,000. euro.

Credit institutions must do this by May 27 by e-mail in accordance with the regulation of the European Banking Authority. The reports will go to the sanctions group of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The decision is related to the European Commission’s request to update the templates with information on deposits covered by sanctions provisions.

In January, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the freezing of Russian assets in the amount of 187 million euros: “These are real estate, shares, cars, yachts, planes. Various valuable properties,” said Pia Saarivaara, representative of the department. At the same time, she did not name the names of the Russians whose assets were blocked.

March 31 Finnish debt collection office froze accounts of the Russian Center for Science and Culture (RCSC) in the Finnish bank Nordea. In addition, seven apartments in Helsinki were seized, three of which are close to the RCSC. The authorities explained that the property was related to Russians who were subject to EU sanctions. By according to media information, both the center and the apartments belong to Rossoospodarchestvo.

In September, the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported the seizure of Yandex’s Finnish assets as part of EU sanctions against company founder Arkady Volozha; the resort territory of Långvik, owned by Roman Rotenberg; and shares in Helsinki Halli, in which Gennady Timchenko holds 22.5%.

According to statistical services, 6,003 Russians emigrated to Finland in 2022, which was a record since the collapse of the USSR.