"We strongly recommend all Belarusian banks disconnect from the Russian Bank’s Financial Messaging System (SPFS) to avoid secondary EU sanctions and focus their efforts not on supporting Lukashenko's dictatorial regime and its repressive policies, but on working in the interests of Belarusian citizens and the national economy. Continuing to assist in sanctions evasion brings Belarusian banks closer to restrictive measures that could affect the stability of Belarus’s financial system.
I appeal to you, Pavel Vladimirovich Kallaur, as the head of the National Bank of Belarus: You can change course. Refuse to support a regime that places Lukashenko’s personal ambitions above national interests and focus on the real protection of Belarus’s financial and economic independence", urged Pavel Latushka.
On December 11, 2023, Pavel Latushka met in Brussels with the EU Special Representative for Sanctions, David O'Sullivan. The parties discussed a range of issues related to sanctions pressure on Lukashenko's regime. During the meeting, the need for the isolation of the SPFS, which is the Russian equivalent of SWIFT, was voiced.
Subsequently, the National Anti-Crisis Management (NAU) provided a detailed justification for the necessity of imposing sanctions on SPFS and its role in circumventing already imposed restrictions. As a result, the EU, in its next sanctions package on June 24, 2024, introduced a ban for European banks outside of Russia to use SPFS. The new package also set conditions for creating a list of third-country banks connected to this system. These banks were then prohibited from conducting transactions with EU residents. Thus, the EU effectively introduced a mechanism for applying secondary sanctions for using SPFS.
On October 11, 2024, the NAU sent a letter to Klaus Vedder, the head of the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union (FISMA) of the European Commission, with information on Belarusian banks connected to SPFS and suspected of evading sanctions.
The 16th sanctions package against Russia, adopted today, further tightened restrictions in the financial sector. In particular, the EU has, for the first time, imposed a ban on transactions involving specific credit or financial institutions established outside Russia that use SPFS. Specifically, three banks fell under secondary EU sanctions for using the Russian equivalent of SWIFT to circumvent EU sanctions. Two of these organizations were registered in Belarus and connected to SPFS, using it to bypass EU restrictive measures.
It is worth recalling that by the end of 2021, almost all Belarusian banks were connected to SPFS. On December 9, 2021, the Central Bank of Russia announced that 23 Belarusian banks (including the Development Bank), as well as the National Bank, the Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange, and the Belarusian Interbank Settlement Center, were included in the list of those connected to the system.
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