appreciate this and are Russian banks willing to open accounts for non-res physically present in Russia AMERICAN citizens? I know FATCA complicates things and what is true for many other nationalities isn't always true for mine since many banks do not want US customers understandably so.
Last questions for you in respect to a general account opening at a russian bank say Rosbank as a true non-resident with no residence permit what kind of opening deposit would one be looking at? What kind of deposits are needed for private banking within russia? Lastly is it possible for non residents to get an account at Sberbank?
From what I google it looks like they do but then I also read about some local Russian law that would prevent information exchange so I am not sure.
For CRS yes since 2018: CRS by jurisdiction - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
In Russian annexed Crimea probably not. "Mainland" Russian banks do not operate there. Crimean Russian banks, such as GenBank, are sanctioned. International Visa cards for example do not work there.
Great insight! Do you know at what balance levels premier or private banking become available at say Sber or Alfa?? Appreciate the insight! 🙂
Generally speaking, premier level banking starts at around 1 mil RUB (though there are usually no fixed requirements and you can just "buy-in" premium package for 2-3 k RUB per month - unless you hold around 1-1,5 mil rub combined or spend like 50-100 k monthly: you get free premium banking)
That's only ~€11500 or ~$13700, not so much money for a "premium" account 🙂
exactly what I was thinking, it's truly a very modest sum of money for premier banking in a country as large as Russia. I'm surprised it's so low. I guess the final question is while they will open accounts for non-residents and even an American like myself, how safe are the banks actually? Sberbank seems like the safest bet to me since it's state owned and the largest.
