Representative and Chair Maxine Waters attends the House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 30, 2021. Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) sever relations with Moscow.
In a letter sent Thursday to leading industry groups including the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Waters requested data on which companies continued to operate after the invasion of Russia are doing business in Ukraine and their reasons for doing so.
She also asked the groups to detail their members’ processes for complying with Western sanctions. She asked the groups to forward the information to the committee within 20 days.
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US Representative Waters, the California Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, did not say what the committee might do with the information.
Financial firms have taken different approaches in response to the Russian invasion, and Water’s review is likely to increase pressure on those institutions that have yet to exit.
“Although several companies have voluntarily divested from Russia, the committee currently lacks a clear picture of the scope of these divestitures,” she wrote.
“When the full force of the US economy is used against countries that commit atrocities, we can bring about real and lasting change.”
US payments companies Visa Inc (VN), Mastercard Inc (MA.N) and PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) suspended operations in Russia earlier this month, a move welcomed by the White House. Continue reading
Several of Wall Street’s largest banks, including Citigroup Inc (CN), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), have committed to closing down operations in Russia, although they plan to do so maintaining a limited presence and sticking to Russian banking licenses, Reuters reported. Continue reading
Most cryptocurrency exchanges, meanwhile, have resisted calls to cut off Russian users and raised concerns that digital assets could be used to bypass Western sanctions. Continue reading
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Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington Editing by Matthew Lewis
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