After the special operation that was launched last February 2022, all the western countries were competing on putting sanctions on Russian and Russian Nationals. These sanctions were having a serious negative impact on individuals who are either traveling for leisure or for international business development.
With current trends of cashless transactions by using cards and transfers for all kind of payments, the sanctions were the main obstacle that Russian Nationals started facing especially when Visa and MasterCard included Russian Issuers Banks in their sanction List and when the swift was disconnected for majority of Russian Bank.
Lately, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has granted a license to MTS Bank. MTS Bank is now officially registered in Abu Dhabi. It received the license last year and the official announcement was made on Wednesday February 8, 2023 making MTS the first foreign bank in several years to receive a license in the UAE.
Needless to mention that the UAE is a member of OPEC+ oil alliance that includes Russia, and maintained good ties with Moscow although the global Geopolitical tensions imposed by the west .
MTS is a fintech unit of Russia’s largest mobile operator and MTS is not subject to western sanctions.
This new opportunity will allow Russian Nationals to open personal and business accounts in the UAE.
MTS services will meet the growing demands for financial services from Russian expatriates in the region, especially that the Russian Nationals were the top non-resident buyers of residential property in Dubai in the past six months.
MTS’s operations department stated that the UAE license will ease access to bank accounts for Russians and open a new channel for the flow of funds to and from the UAE.
Mr. Ilya Filatov, the chairman of MTS visited the UAE lately to assist MTS preparations for the launching of the banking services in the coming months.
WhatsApp QR code
Telegram QR code