Belarusians Face Problems With Bank Accounts In One More EU Country
- 26.03.2026, 13:21
This is due to the 19th package of sanctions.
A Belarusian woman told Threads that she had difficulties opening a bank account in Italy because of her citizenship. According to her, one of the banks first issued her a card, and then closed the account and cut it right in the branch, writes "Zerkalo".
"I live in Italy, but my citizenship is Belarusian. Due to sanctions, my bank, where I have been served for seven years, refused to open a new account for me, as I am a citizen of Belarus. However, when I requested to open a new account online, they opened it and sent me a new card. So I went to the bank to activate it (the application glitched and wouldn't log in). I was activated, but then they found out that I was Belarusian and immediately closed the account and cut the card. I want to laugh and cry," wrote the Belarusian woman.
Some commentators also told how they faced difficulties, while others gave advice on how best to act in such a situation.
"It's illegal if you have a permesso (permesso di soggiorno - permission to stay. It is the Italian equivalent of a residence permit. - Editor's note). Write to the central branch of the bank with an emphasis on discrimination on the grounds of nationality."
"I had my account blocked in the Czech Republic by a financial institution. The blocking was with reference to the law, according to which if you were born in places from the black list, you are blocked with the ends. And it doesn't matter what documents you have now, the place of birth is the main thing."
"I had the same thing with [bank] Intesa... I had a residence permit and a job, and in the end they just blocked my card at a random moment and froze the money I earned in Italy. As soon as I contacted a lawyer, they immediately opened everything up like a sweetheart. But they blocked it, explaining that I was from Russia (and they did it at a very unfortunate moment, when I went to work in another city, where I had to pay for housing and live on something)".
"Is there no Permesso di soggiorno? If there is, they can't forbid it! Ask your husband to make a denuncia [complaint] against the bank."
"Few details. They ask 100 questions in the process: about residency in Belarus and the Russian Federation, about the presence of property and income there, about the source of money. Then during the registration process they give you five or seven papers to sign, where four of them exactly refer to self-declaration on the same topics: that you are not on the sanctions list, that you are not a resident, that you do not have property in Belarus and the Russian Federation, that the source of money will not be from Belarus and the Russian Federation. If you said "yes" somewhere, that is the answer to the question "Why were you refused?". The author of the post replied that she was not asked such questions.
"Yes, unfortunately. I totally understand, try the post office. They seem to be more loyal."
We recall that since the end of last year, a number of banks began to send notices to Belarusians and Russians to block accounts with the requirement to submit a European residence permit. This is associated with the 19th package of sanctions. However, as clarified in the European Commission, such restrictions do not apply to citizens of these countries with residence permits in one of the EU countries or long-term Schengen visas.