Russia has lost another banking partner as more lenders turn their back on Moscow over fear of sanctions

• Russia will be cut off from another bank at the end of the month.

• Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp will stop processing Russian transactions in November, Bloomberg reported.

• The Singaporean bank is following lenders in China, which have largely pulled back from Russia.

Another bank has turned its back on Russia as lenders grow worried about doing business with Moscow under threat of Western sanctions.

Oversea–Chinese Banking Corp, the second-largest lender in Singapore, told its clients it would no longer process any transactions related to Russia as of the start of November, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in a report published this week.

That includes transactions revolving around the transport or sale of goods and services in Russia, the person said, attributing the pullback to “operational challenges” around compliance and regulation.

The new restrictions aren’t expected to significantly impact the bank, given that OCBC hasn’t opened new accounts for Russian clients in two years, the source added.

The bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

The changes come as more lenders grow hesitant about doing deals with Russian clients after the West threatened to impose secondary sanctions on firms doing business in the country.

A Russian state media outlet reported that nearly all Chinese banks have stopped processing payments from Russia out of fear of being targeted.

Russia, meanwhile, has nearly depleted its yuan reserves and businesses earlier this year had been locked out of billions amid payment issues abroad, according to data from Russia’s central bank.

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