Salary blocked, account suspended, credit refused… Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russians in France have been encountering difficulties with their banks, reports The Parisian this Wednesday, May 4. Grouped together, nearly 500 Russians and Belarusians are even planning to launch legal action to denounce the banking discrimination of which they are victims.
“I went to see my account by chance. I finally saw that my pay had arrived, then it disappeared. Without anyone telling me or explaining the reasons!” testifies in the columns of the Ile-de-France daily Anna, 33, digital consultant. This Russian, who has lived in France for ten years, contacted her bank, Société Générale, to obtain an explanation. The latter then explained to him that he was carrying out “checks on the origin of the funds in view of the international context”. “While my salaries come from a French company, I have been paying my taxes here for six years. I am not an oligarch!” she is indignant. Since then, all his cash receipts must be validated “by hand” by his banker.
And Anna is far from alone in this case. A Telegram group, entitled “Discrimination of customers by Société Générale and other French banks” has no less than 1,500 subscribers and a petition to denounce this discrimination had collected more than 3,200 signatures, Wednesday, May 4. These Russians denounce each time the same type of problems: impossibility of making transfers, suspended wages, blocked accounts, requests for supporting documents, refused credits… Several banks are targeted: LCL, Société Générale, Boursorama, BNP Paribas, CIC. ..
A collective of 500 plaintiffs is now planning to take legal action. “The fact for French banks to apply measures akin to sanctions, without any distinction and without justification, with regard to their Russian-speaking customers, is likely to constitute the offense of discrimination provided for and punished in the Code criminal”, advance Me Marie-Laure Cartier and Me Alexandre Meyniel, in charge of building the case.
On the side of the banks, we deny any discrimination. Société Générale ensures that it follows the regulations to the letter. As Le Parisien reminds us, since February 25, European regulations “prohibit accepting deposits from Russian nationals or natural persons residing in Russia, or from legal persons, entities or bodies established in Russia if the value total deposits of the natural or legal person, entity or body exceed 100,000 euros per credit institution”.
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