The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) issued Official Clarification No. 1-OR dated 14 July 2026 “On the Application of Decree No. 95 of the President of the Russian Federation dated 5 March 2022 “On the Temporary Procedure for Performing Obligations to Certain Foreign Creditors” regarding the Performance of Bank Deposit Obligations” (hereinafter Decree No. 95).
We would like to remind you here that further to the amendments dated 1 June 2026 to Decree No. 95, the temporary procedure for performing obligations on loans and borrowings and financial instruments to foreign creditors associated with so-called unfriendly states (hereinafter the temporary procedure and foreign creditors accordingly) applied to the deposits of foreign creditors.
The substance of the temporary procedure is that obligations may be performed through a transfer of funds to a special C account (with limits on authorised transactions) or on the terms agreed upon in the permit of the Government Commission for Control of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation (hereinafter the Government Commission).
Non-resident individuals faced a number of restrictions regarding their deposits at Russian banks immediately after the entry into force of the indicated amendments.
The clarification of the Bank of Russia represents an attempt to clarify certain issues on the application of Decree No. 95 to bank deposits.
Even though the Bank of Russia did not address in its clarification how the temporary procedure applies to the deposits of legal entities controlled by foreign creditors, the current version of Decree No. 95 does not affect the performance of obligations under the bank deposit contracts of such entities if they are registered in the Russian Federation. This follows directly from Clause 1 of Decree No. 95.
Accordingly, such entities may dispose of such deposits at their discretion, without adhering to the restrictions arising from Decree No. 95. The clarification of the Bank of Russia does not apply to them.
According to the clarifications of the Bank of Russia, Decree No. 95 does not apply to obligations arising from a bank account contract.
Consequently, transactions on settlement and correspondent accounts may be performed without any of the restrictions established by the temporary procedure.
The Bank of Russia clarified that Decree No. 95 does not contain any prohibition on extending the term of a bank deposit, including through the introduction of respective amendments to a bank deposit contract. At the same time, it should be noted here that the obligation to pay interest, including in instances when the term of a bank deposit contract is extended, should be performed pursuant to the temporary procedure established by Decree No. 95.
This implies that payments of interest in excess of RUB 10 million a calendar month (or in excess of the foreign currency equivalent of this amount according to the official exchange rate of the Bank of Russia established on the first day of each month) should be transferred to a type C account. Otherwise – the transfer of the interest to the general bank account of a client - this can only be done with a respective permit of the Government Commission.
The issue arises as to how the temporary procedure should be applied to the payment of interest income through the capitalisation of interest on a deposit. The Bank of Russia’s clarifications do not provide any instructions on this score. Consequently, it transpires that at present interest should be capitalised in compliance with the temporary procedure.
According to the Bank of Russia’s clarifications, Decree No. 95 does not permit the option of terminating obligations under a bank deposit contract of a foreign creditor through the transfer of funds to the bank account (including correspondent account) of a foreign creditor that is not a type C account, and/or to the bank account of a third party without the receipt of a permit of the Government Commission.
Notwithstanding the lack of express references to this effect in the Bank of Russia’s clarifications, there would appear to be no restrictions on transfers of amounts up to RUB 10 million (or the equivalent foreign currency amount at the exchange rate of the Bank of Russia) per calendar month to a bank account that is not a type C account. In other words, the exception to the temporary procedure stipulated by Clause 2 of Decree No. 95 applies to bank deposits. It should be borne in mind that as the closing of a bank deposit, payment of the amount of the deposit and respective accrued interest, happen simultaneously, we would expect banks to interpret any deposit over and above RUB 10 million to be covered by the temporary procedure, and it is unlikely that such a payment could be broken down by months.
However, if a permit of the Government Commission to the transfer of a deposit to bank account has been obtained, then the deposit can be transferred to other accounts, and not only to a C type account.
The Bank of Russia’s position that the amount of the obligation of a credit institution under bank deposit contracts should be determined, for the purpose of compliance with Clause 2 of Decree No. 95, proceeding from the amount of the obligation to each depositor per calendar month, is worthy of note.
This is a deviation from the position previously articulated by the Bank of Russia that obligations for the purposes of compliance with Clause 2 of Decree No. 95 should be understood to mean the aggregate amount of all the obligations of the debtor indicated in Clause 1 of Decree No. 95 to all foreign creditors in a calendar month. If the amount of such obligations exceeds RUB 10 million a calendar month, a debtor’s performance of its obligations to any foreign creditor is contingent on compliance with the temporary procedure established by Decree No. 95, regardless of the amount due and payable to this foreign creditor1.
Russian banks adhered to this position prior to the introduction of the amendments to Decree No. 95.
The new interpretation issued by the Bank of Russia improves the position of non-resident depositors, as the limit of RUB 10 million a calendar month is established for each depositor, thereby enabling the depositors of a specific bank to seek to recover more significant amounts than had been the case in the past. Consequently, each depositor may recover from one bank up to RUB 10 million from all the deposits opened at that bank. Moreover, it follows from the Bank of Russia’s clarifications that a depositor that has deposits at several banks may obtain amounts of up to RUB 10 million a calendar month at each bank where it has a deposit or deposits.
However, it follows from recent judicial practice on payments of borrowings and dividends to foreign creditors that the threshold amount of RUB 10 million a calendar month which is exempt from the temporary procedure in accordance with Clause 2 of Decree No. 95, is considered the maximum limit on payments per foreign creditor per calendar month regarding all the financial obligations, the performance of which is covered by Decree No. 95 (borrowings, dividends, etc.)
In view of the above, it cannot be ruled out that banks may adopt this approach to payments on deposits, which would limit significantly the ability of foreign creditors to dispose of their funds on deposit accounts.
In general, one can conclude that a large number of issues as to how Decree No. 95 should be applied to the bank deposits of unfriendly foreign persons have yet to be resolved. We will continue to monitor the development of legal regulation in this area and will keep you up to date.
1 Clause 1.1 of Official Clarification No. 6-OR of the Bank of Russia dated 20 May 2022.
