Error in Upwork sanctioned Russian banks list

[waltham01]

Hi, 

could you please help me raise this to the team that handles the sanctions lists? It seems there might be an error with how the list is uploaded to Upwork. I.e. the bank in quesiton isn't in the list, and yet the system doesn't allow to transfer money to it.  

I tried to do a wire transfer to my bank account, it worked just fine and then it got reversed. The payment method disappeared after that. The bank is Alfabank, it is in in the sanctions list, but they say the penalties have only banned it from issuing shares, which it was not planning to do anyway. Alfa-Bank said it was continuingto carry out cross-border transactions via the SWIFT global interbank payments system.

I checked with support, they gave me this list, as you can see Alfabank isn't listed (which is correct), but by some reason the payments are reversed. 

1. BANK DABRABYT JOINT STOCK COMPANY (BANK MOSCOW-MINSK JSC)
2. BANK OTKRITIE 
3. BELINVESTBANK JSC
4. GAZPROMBANK JOINT STOCK COMPANY
5. PAO ROSGOSSTRAKH BANK
6. PROMSVYAZBANK
7. PUBLIC JOINT STOCK COMPANY KB VOSTOCHNY (ORIENT EXPRESS BANK)
8. SBERBANK (SAVINGS BANK OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION)

[petra_r]

I thought SWIFT has been disabled for Russia?

[waltham01]

I guess, no, at least reading the Reuters summary on sanctions I see that only some government owned banks are disconnected from SWIFT.

https://www.reuters.com/business/sanctioned-russian-banks-face-international-payment-problems-2022-0...

For Alfabank they say they are prohibited to issue share that they didn't plan anyway, no swift restrictions.

[colettelewis]

The problem seems to be not so much which bank can no longer use SWIFT, but what Upwork is allowed to do in respect of the sanctions: 

"I am a freelancer located in one of the regions specified in the Executive Order. How can Upwork support me during this time?

First and foremost, we hope you are safe. Unfortunately, Upwork is prohibited from working with anyone in either of the regions specified in the Executive Order or subsequent areas. That means that if you are in that region, we cannot allow you to continue on our platform after March 23, 2022, and you may not submit proposals or enter into new contracts. If you did not have an account prior to February 21, 2022, you cannot sign up to use Upwork."

For the moment anyway, you may be able to use Payoneer or PayPal.

[waltham01]

Nichola, thanks, from geo standpoint the EO explicitly covers two regions of Ukraine, not Russia. That's a different country, but it also covers list of the sanctioned Russian banks and individuals.

The question was about the Russian freelancer and the specific bank which isn't under sanctions. 

[tagrendy]

This means that you will not be able to disburse your funds using wire and direct-to-local banks will be limited to withdraw funds to any affected financial institution

From this sentence it seems wire transfer is completely disabled, direct-to-local transfer may be available for banks not effected by the ban.

[waltham01]

Tatevik, thanks, this is very helpful indeed, but where does the quote you refer to come from? Sorry, can't find anything like this neither in EO nor in the Upwork rules. In fact, I have accounts at other marketplaces, and they indeed banned Sberbank (like per the list from Upwork above), but Alfabank wire transfers work just fine. 

[tagrendy]

Here, in the FAQ section 

[waltham01]

Tatevik, thank you so much for your help. This indeed worked out quite nicely (see the details in the accepted solution). 

[prestonhunter]

If I understand this thread correctly, the original poster lives in Russia. He tried to withdraw money to his bank, but the payment was reversed. He couldn't withdraw his money.

And he is concerned about the list of banks Upwork posted being inaccurate?

Isn't it safe to just assume that pretty much everybody living in Russia is going to have problems with any international banking?

I don't think that a list of banks posted on an obscure web page on Upwork is the real problem here.

[waltham01]

Hi, thank you for sharing this. I'm not sure I raised a general question regarding "problems with any international banking" for Russia. I mean, I though it would make sense if I raise it here and it is somehow discussed and hopefully addressed, as otherwise all Russia-based freelancers having the same issue with raise it with support one by one,  creating quite an overhead for Upwork.

Getting back to the issue at hand, I believe the question was quite specific, I.e. there's a bank name, there's a list of the sanctioned banks from Upwork support team (not an "obscure web page on Upwork") , and it is missing in the list, yet the withdrawals don't seem to come through. 

Any thoughts?

[petra_r]

I believe Tatevik nailed it.

This means that you will not be able to disburse your funds using wire and direct-to-local banks will be limited to withdraw funds to any affected financial institution

I understand that the same way she did:

Wire won't work at all, for any bank.

"Direct to local bank" may well work if your bank isn't affected (yet).

[waltham01]

Petra, thanks, totally makes sense. Have used your suggestions /clarifications to solve the issue. Much appreciated. 

[andrew8712]

>I don't think that a list of banks posted on an obscure web page on Upwork is the real problem here.

What is the real problem then?

[prestonhunter]

re: "What is the real problem then?"

The real problem that people in Russia face is international financial and trade sanctions, including being cut off from the world's banking system, as a result of Russia invading Ukraine.

Compared to that, whether or not a specific bank is listed or not listed on a particular web page is not a significant problem. If there were no restrictions on the original poster's banking transactions, then he would not care one way or another if his bank was listed accurately on an Upwork webpage.

[andrew8712]

I believe it's a real problem for the OP that he couldn't withdraw his income from Upwork. Don't you think so?

Saying "I don't think it's a real problem here", well... Sounds very offensive.

[prestonhunter]

re:"I believe it's a real problem for the OP that he couldn't withdraw his income from Upwork. Don't you think so?"

I agree.

But the original poster's problem was not in any way caused by Upwork.

And Upwork can't fix his problem.

If Upwork adds or removes the name of a bank from an information web page, that doesn't have any impact on his ability to withdraw funds.

As a practical matter, countries around the world, including the United States, and companies all over the world are working together to block residents of Russia from being able to do any banking transactions.

So the original poster can't be surprised if he runs into difficulties in this area.

[PradeepH]

Hi Andrey,

Thank you for your message. It appears that certain affected financial institutions are likely to be removed from SWIFT, which means that we will not be able to transfer funds to those affected financial institutions or their subsidiaries. You can check if your bank has been sanctioned by searching this website which is a database of all persons and entities sanctioned by the U.S. Government. If it is, you may not be able to use our wire and direct-to-local bank services to transfer funds to those institutions. If you are using a PayPal or Payoneer account, please reach out to them to assess whether they will be able to transfer your funds to you. I see that you have already communicated with our support team and updated your bank details. Please don't hesitate to follow up with them via the support ticket if you have additional questions regarding your concern. 

Thank you

Pradeep

[cpptula]

ALFA-BANK is on this site https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov . I checked couple minutes ago. But his sanctions allow send money with SWIFT. Support said me - " Alfa bank was removed in error and the team is already in the process of notifying affected users about  this and how to proceed." 

Is there chance to fix the problem?

[ericaandrews]

The list of sanctioned banks is not being PRODUCED by Upwork:  They are simply sharing information from the U.S. Treasury and other government entities:  For the most up-to-date list, you should just go to the U.S. Treasury web page and the web pages of all the other countries sanctionining Russia, since the sanctions are changing every day.   Reuters, Upwork, and other sites are not the people issuing the OFFICIAL sanctions that can change at any minute.  Go the U.S. Treasury web site and the GOVERNMENT web sites of other countries sanctionining Russia for the latest information.  Also, keep in mind that just because a specific bank name doesn't appear on the United States list of sanctions, doesn't mean some other country (Canada, an EU member, etc) didn't sanction the bank:  It has the same effect: If the money can't travel across borders, you can't access it.  **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[prestonhunter]

Then here is a simple solution to the original poster's stated problem:

Upwork should REMOVE the list of banks from its website... Because Upwork's list is NOT ACCURATE. Upwork should instead provide a LINK to the up-to-date list provided by the original source.

[waltham01]

Preston, with all due respect, the issue isn't in Upwork publishing the list, the issue is how the sanction data is handled on the Upwork side.

This discussion is exactly about a bank which isn't in the sanctions list, but withdrawals to it are blocked. Talking to support team, turns out that they just cut down the wire transfer option for all Russian-based freelancers, i.e. Upwork seems to sanction all Russian banks while EO is quite specific in which ones are blocked. So, it would be great if this is somehow addressed at the technical level at least, so people can, for instance, add non sanctioned banks to their payment methods. 

[claudiacezy]

---

Andrey K wrote:

This discussion is exactly about a bank which isn't in the sanctions list, but withdrawals to it are blocked. Talking to support team, turns out that they just cut down the wire transfer option for all Russian-based freelancers, i.e. Upwork seems to sanction all Russian banks while EO is quite specific in which ones are blocked. 

---

Upwork restricts users access from some other countries even if they are not on a sanctions list, due to limitations with their payment partners.

The access restriction could be also related to restrictions imposed within a country, not only U.S. related ... i.e. starting March 1st clients from Russia may not be able to make payments outside the country to other foreign entities, due to restrictions imposed by Russia. 

[waltham01]

Claudia, thanks, this is really helpful indeed. 

[kochubei_valeria]

Andrey and Pavel,

I've shared the concerns you raised on this thread with the team and they're currently looking into it. They'll be updating you via your support tickets with more information and further assisting you with your payment methods.