Binance excludes sanctioned Russian banks from its P2P platform By CriptoFácil

2023-08-26 00:31:26

© Reuters Binance excludes sanctioned Russian banks from its P2P platform

CriptoFácil – Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has removed Russian banks targeted by Western sanctions from its peer-to-peer (P2P) service.

As a result, customers of the exchange in Russia can no longer use said banks to send digital assets to each other, as reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in a report published this Friday (25).

The action comes just days after a report by the WSJ itself, published this week, claiming that Binance is helping Russian users move money abroad using five Russian banks targeted by sanctions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

After the news broke, banks are no longer listed on Binance’s P2P website as a method for users to transfer Russian rubles to each other.

The exchange said the removal is due to a regular update of its system in order to comply with regulatory standards and local and global sanctions rules.

“When gaps are pointed out to us, we try to address and remedy them as quickly as possible. In line with our ongoing commitments, payment methods on the Binance P2P platform that do not fall under our compliance policies are not available on our platform,” said a Binance spokesperson.

Binance and Russian Banks

As reported by CriptoFácil, the WSJ reported on August 22 that Binance continued to process transactions for Russian banks. This even with sanctions imposed on these financial entities. The list of banks includes, for example, Rosbank, the eighth largest bank in Russia, and Tinkoff Bank, the tenth largest Russian bank.

The WSJ also said Russians carried out P2P transactions worth about $428 million a month from October to March.

Binance, however, stated that it follows global sanctions rules. Furthermore, it stated that it has no banking relationships anywhere for its P2P service.

“We do not have any relationship with any bank, in Russia or elsewhere, regarding our P2P program,” the company said following the complaint.

By CriptoFacil