Banks in Central Asia and Armenia stopped working with “Unistr”
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Two banks of Uzbekistan, six banks of Kyrgyzstan and four banks of Armenia have stopped working with the Russian payment system for transferring money between countries “Unistrym”. On July 20, the bank-operator of the Unistream system came under US sanctions.
As reported by Sibir.Realii, the largest banks of Uzbekistan, Narodny Bank and Ipoteka Bank, Kyrgyz banks Kompanion, Finsa Bank, RSK Bank, Capital Bank, Halyk Bank and Bank of Asia, as well as Ardshinbank and Converse Bank in Armenia, stopped working with Unistream. Armenian banks “Evokabank” and “Armeconombank” have banned transfers in any currency except rubles and drams.
The national postal operator of Kazakhstan “Kazpochta” as well as the Kazakh “Nurbank” and the Georgian Bank of Georgia and TVS have also stopped carrying out fund transfers. In Tajikistan, Orienbank and Humo Bank stopped working with Unistream, Radio Azattyk reports. In this country, according to the TASS agency, only the State Bank of Tajikistan continues to service the Russian payment system.
“Unistream” is one of the most popular systems for sending money from Russia, which worked with more than 30 countries. In particular, it is popular among labor migrants in the Russian Federation, who use it to send money to their families in their countries.
Yunistrim, Contact and Zolotaya Korona also became the main services for transferring funds of Russian citizens who left the country after the start of the war against Ukraine. They worked with a limited list of countries, however, after the introduction of sanctions against the bank-operator of the system, the list of these countries began to shrink rapidly.
In 2022, money transfers from Russia to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Armenia increased by 300–600%, including transfers by Russians through banks and the Golden Crown, Unistream, and Contact systems.
- Russians transferred 2 billion dollars from Russia to Georgia, which is 403% more than in 2021;
- about 775 million dollars were sent from Russia to Kazakhstan through the money transfer system, which is 579% more than in 2021;
- remittances to Uzbekistan increased by 160% compared to 2021 — up to 14.5 billion dollars;
- Russians sent 3.1 billion dollars to Armenian banks, which is 306% more than in January-November 2021;
- remittances to Kyrgyzstan for 11 months of 2022 exceeded 2.6 billion dollars.
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