The situation in Ukraine is undoubtedly on everyone’s minds at present. While it is not our place to provide commentary on the wider situation, some of our members may have clients who are affected by some of the sanctions and financial measures coming into place.
LowLands Accounting Services is a Dutch-owned firm operating in Russia, which work primarily with foreign companies doing business in Russia. They have been in close contact with their Partners in the Russian Business Community in order to monitor the situation regarding measures and countermeasures relating to the latest sanction. They are well placed to assist if you have any clients who need assistance in light of the current situation.
LowLands has shared a recent update on the situation as it affects clients trading in Russia. As the situation is developing rapidly, we must acknowledge that this information could go out of date very quickly. We encourage anyone with clients needing assistance to contact Walter, our lead contact there, at [email protected].
A recent update from LowLands is below.
Dear clients and partners,
Many of you have already reached out to us, asking about the consequences of the current events in our region. We are in close contact with our partners throughout the business community in Russia in order to stay informed about (possible) events, measures and countermeasures that will affect all of us who are doing business in Russia.
As all of you, we pay specific attention to the (potential) measures that affect the banking system in Russia. At this very moment, we do not experience issues with daily transactions among the many banks in Russia we are in a working relationship with.
We expect the effects of the currently announced sanctions to become noticeable in the near future. Although it is believed these will be of limited impact on day-to-day (banking) operations, we are closely monitoring any signs of disruptions. With events constantly and rapidly unfolding, it is however difficult to look much ahead. On our side we commit to stay on top of these events and in case of imminent disruptive events inform you accordingly.
At the same time our team is continuing their service provision as usual. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us in case of questions or issues you might face in your business operations.
As for the sanctions related to SWIFT, the current status is:
- The SWIFT sanctions are announced to be targeted on particular banks;
- It has not been communicated which banks this will be.
- Therefore is not clear now:
- which banks particularly will be affected;
- how these banks will be affected
- what the practical implications will be in general and in particular for those banks
- At this moment, all banks confirm they work as usual.
At the time of writing, we are still operating as we did before. Throughout the day we monitor among our team if there is any sign of issues with banking and making transfers both local and international. So far there have been no issues.
