Banks have resumed selling foreign currency. Where and how to buy dollars and euros?

According to “Izvestia”, some Russian banks again received foreign currency. There it can be purchased at a rate close to that set by the Central Bank.

Dollars and euros appeared in at least four financial institutions: Sovcombank, Uralsib Bank, Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Zenit Bank. At the same time, banks can set their own limits so that the currency supply is enough for everyone who wants to exchange it for rubles.

“Within one day, a client can purchase cash currency for a total amount of not more than 5 thousand dollars. The purchase is possible from the moment the office opens until 18:15 Moscow time. Clients can also sell foreign currency to the bank at the cash desks of branches at a favorable rate,” Sovcombank said.

Banks faced a shortage of foreign currency after the Central Bank introduced severe restrictions on its circulation in order to prevent the ruble from collapsing. Due to the crisis, the demand for dollars and euros became too high, so the Central Bank obliged banks to take a protective commission on such operations (it has now been canceled) and limited the amount of cash withdrawals and transfers abroad. Against the backdrop of these restrictions in Russia, again, as in the USSR and Russia in the early 90s, “money changers” appeared who bought and sold dollars and euros at the black market rate.

Banks note the popularity of services for the sale of foreign currency: for one purchase transaction, there are two acquisition transactions. At the same time, dollars are taken one and a half to two times more often than euros.