TradeXBank, the successor bank of Russia’s Sberbank, has received permission to resume operations in US dollars, as announced by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac). This decision comes after Ofac removed TradeXBank’s predecessor, Sberbank (Schweiz) AG, from its sanctions list for Russia.
Ofac is responsible for enforcing the sanctions imposed by the United States on states, companies, and individuals worldwide. Following the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Sberbank was placed on this list, which also affected its subsidiary bank in Switzerland. This subsidiary specialized in trading raw materials such as energy, agricultural products, fertilizers, and metals.
Under the supervision of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), the Swiss bank was sold to a Geneva-based investment company, m3 Groupe Holding SA, after the US imposed sanctions. Since then, the resized bank has been operating under the name TradeXBank, serving medium-sized companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Despite the sale, some of the US sanctions remained in place, preventing the bank from conducting transactions in US dollars. This restriction forced the bank to operate solely in euros and Swiss francs, significantly impacting their ability to serve customers in the global market.
However, after a lengthy process to prove its disassociation from the Russian parent bank, TradeXBank has successfully been removed from the sanctions list. The bank can now resume active business operations in US dollars, a move expected to result in significant growth opportunities for the institution.