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The EU has cut off a further 33 Russian banks from SWIFT as part of its 21st package of sanctions

The EU has cut off a further 33 Russian banks from SWIFT as part of its 21st package of sanctions

24 July 2026, 12:01

The EU has cut off a further 33 Russian banks from SWIFT as part of its 21st package of sanctions — The 21st package of sanctions against Russia

As part of its 21st package of sanctions, the European Union has imposed a complete ban on the use of the SWIFT system by 33 Russian banks.

This was announced by representatives of the European Commission at a briefing in Brussels, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) is a system for transmitting financial messages, including payment orders and reference information, required to execute transactions in the payments, securities and derivatives markets. It brings together more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries worldwide.

Consequently, 94 financial institutions in the Russian Federation are now subject to full restrictions imposed by Brussels, accounting for half of the country’s entire banking sector. According to officials, the new restrictions cover most of the so-called systemic banks, as well as large regional institutions which the Russian Federation had been using to circumvent previous bans.

The European Commission has emphasised that the ban on transactions also includes de-SWIFTing. As a result, banks lose the speed of data exchange (payments become significantly slower), process automation (transactions have to be processed manually), transaction security (as alternative channels are less secure), as well as access to customers, as it becomes impossible to serve international businesses promptly. In effect, this means that transactions and messaging via the SWIFT system will no longer be available to these banks worldwide.

The European Commission is now focusing on large regional banks, as well as on those institutions that are taking over the operations of banks that have already been banned. They clarified that half of the Russian banking sector, in terms of revenue, assets and transactions, has been subject to these restrictions.

The sanctions list also includes financial institutions in third countries that helped Russia circumvent European restrictions – one bank in Mongolia, two Indian subsidiaries of Russia’s Sberbank and VTB, as well as a Chinese bank that continued to use the Russian ‘Mir’ payment system. At the same time, the European Union has lifted sanctions against Azerbaijan’s Yelo Bank, as it has completely disconnected from Russian systems and put robust safeguards in place.

The European Commission clarified that Gazprombank and Raiffeisen Bank were not included in the current package. They explained that Gazprombank is not subject to the transaction ban, as certain legitimate trade is still taking place, and it is currently impossible to cut off absolutely all channels.

As a reminder, on 23 July, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that the European Union had agreed on a 21st package of sanctions against Russia.

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