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My friend, being a healthcare professional, fled the partial mobilization in Russia. Now he's in Turkey with his spouse and little son. Does anybody know which bank offices in Alanya/Antalya region open bank accounts to Russians right now (the situation is dynamic and oftentimes depends not only on the bank, but its particular office).

ouflak
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Alex
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    More is written in Russians rush to open bank accounts in Turkey to protect savings, and in How to open a bank account in Turkey, and especially Open a Bank Account in Turkey for a Non-Resident Private Person. – Weather Vane Sep 30 '22 at 22:44
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    Just a word of caution to all. While there are political undertones all around this, please keep this strictly to the topic of the question. – ouflak Oct 02 '22 at 08:45
  • @outflak, the fact that my friend is against the war nowadays is very relevant to the question what are his chances to get access to the back card payment system abroad. If the bank officer assumes that he is one the putin's naZis, the probability of getting a bank card will be times lower. Will you remove my question at all, just because it assumes that there is a formalized discrimination against a group of people who are personally not under sanctions based solely on their country of origin - since this discrimination is forbidden and should not be assumed? – Alex Oct 02 '22 at 10:23
  • It's not about "politics", it's about survival of a family. – Alex Oct 02 '22 at 10:28
  • Even credit AI algorithms are scrutinized now to check if they implicitly downgrade the credit score based on the applicant's race, ethnicity or gender. Here it is explicit. And it is practical to find a way to deal with that. – Alex Oct 02 '22 at 10:32
  • So it is practical to add that, figuratively speaking, the "payots were cut" and the skin "whitened" and let the readers know that the person has more chances to be serviced in a bank. – Alex Oct 02 '22 at 10:44

1 Answers1

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I'm local.

I just called hotlines of 2 banks in Turkey and explained your friend situation;

Akbank;

Currently, it is not possible to buy and sell foreign currency with Ruble. He can't open neither Turkish Lira nor Ruble bank accounts. But he can visit one of ours offices in Alanya and consult to team called "compliance unit" (I don't know this is the perfect translation or not) which sounds looks like they somehow investigate and decide you can open a bank account or not.

Ziraat;

The hotline couldn't give a proper answer. They said the best way go get the right information is visiting the local office.

Looks like all banks have different rules about this issue. I think the best way to get the "right information" is visiting their local offices.

Soner Gönül
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  • thank you very much for you kind help. I will advise my friend to visit the branch. – Alex Oct 01 '22 at 09:47
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    (+1) ‘Compliance unit’ is the correct translation. It will be the unit tasked with overseeing adherence to external regulations and internal controls. In this case the heightened sanctions risks posed by opening accounts for Russian citizens will likely mean increased due diligence checks (eg a requirement to prove the source of any funds to be deposited, absence of links to any sanctioned individuals/financial institutions etc) and that the Compliance unit itself will have to approve any request to open an account, rather than local branch staff – Traveller Oct 01 '22 at 11:42
  • Thank you for this comment. The huge need in foreign bank accounts by Russians is mainly driven by the decision of Visa and MasterCard to stop servicing their debit and credit cards issued in Russia (including those issued by the local child banks of Citi (U.S.), Raiffeisen (Austria), Unicredit (Italy) and others). – Alex Oct 01 '22 at 21:47
  • I think the vast majority of those who fled putin's Russia in February-March 2022 and those who flee now after September 21, 2022, try to open foreign accounts just to access the services vital for their survival abroad: AirBnB, booking.com, buying air flight tickets to travel from one visa-free country (where they are usually allowed to stay for 1 to 3 months) to another. – Alex Oct 01 '22 at 21:47
  • It's also worth mentioning that the citizens of Russia and foreigners who work in there (and who in their majority support the war) didn't even notice that Visa and MasterCard exited in March 2022, because all their cards seamlessly transitioned to servicing by a national payment system in Russia. The only Russians who had been instantly and unexpectedly affected were students who studied abroad, the long-term tourists who lived in South-East Asia since the pandemic, and the Russians who strongly opposed putin's regime and as a consequent fled Russia as soon as it invaded independent Ukraine. – Alex Oct 01 '22 at 21:57
  • @Alex Unfortunately, the risk of a huge fine for breaching sanctions and/or anti-money laundering regulations plus the extra cost/time/effort involved in undertaking the extra checks mean that for many banks it’s just not worth the hassle of opening accounts in this kind of situation. Easier to have a blanket policy of ‘we don’t do it’ than make exception-based decisions on a case-by-case basis. Moving from one country to another frequently likely won’t help much either - even less incentive for a bank to bother going through the extra formalities – Traveller Oct 01 '22 at 22:41