| On the morning of the 28th, in the dealing room of Hana Bank’s Myeong-dong branch in Jung-gu, Seoul, an official is working while watching the news related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 2022.2.28/News 1 © News1 Reporter Park Se-yeon |
The government actively participates in international financial sanctions against Russia, which invaded Ukraine. In the future, Korea will stop trading with major Russian banks, stop investing in Russian government bonds, and exclude international financial networks (SWIFT).
On the 1st, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Financial Services Commission decided to suspend financial transactions with seven major Russian banks (Sberbank, VEB, VTB, etc.) and subsidiaries subject to US sanctions.
The FSC said, “The day before, as a responsible member of the international community, we officially expressed our participation in the financial sanctions against Russia, and accordingly, we quickly concluded discussions with related ministries.” decided about it,” he said.
Earlier, the US, Europe, and Japan decided to ban major Russian banks from using dollars, block transactions with US financial institutions and individuals, and freeze their assets. The Korean government also participates in this, and domestic transactions are also suspended in accordance with the grace period for US sanctions set by each bank.
However, transactions in the U.S., such as agricultural products, COVID-19 medical support, and energy-related transactions, will be allowed on the same basis as the fields or banks that have issued a general license and have allowed exceptional transactions.
The government plans to regularly inspect transactions between domestic financial institutions and banks subject to sanctions in order to supervise compliance with sanctions.
The government plans to strongly recommend that domestic public institutions and financial institutions stop trading in the issuance and distribution market for all Russian government bonds issued after the 2nd.
Japan has banned the issuance and circulation of Russian government bonds in its financial market since the 26th of last month, and the United States has banned trading with US financial institutions for Russian government bonds issued after the 1st. The European Union (EU) has decided to ban financial institutions from trading Russian government bonds issued after the 9th.
The government also expressed its support for the SWIFT exclusion measures against Russian banks and said that we will implement the EU sanctions as soon as they materialize.
If the EU imposes related sanctions, the Belgian financial authorities, where Swift’s headquarters are located, will issue an exclusion order, and restrictions on Swift’s connection to the bank’s network will be implemented.
A government official said, “We will continue to closely monitor the situation in Ukraine and sanctions measures taken by major countries such as the US and EU to decide and implement additional sanctions promptly in line with the demands of the international community.”