Currency repatriation

Currency repatriation: bringing money under a foreign trade contract back into the country. For Russian companies, the requirement is set out in the currency regulation law (Federal Law No. 173-FZ). It works for both sides of a deal.

Two obligations of a resident

• The exporter must receive payment for the goods, work or services it has delivered into its account with an authorized bank within the period set by the contract.
• The importer that has paid in advance must receive the goods or get the money back for what has not been delivered, also within the contract period.

The bank monitors this through contract registration: it matches payments against the delivery documents. The law lists cases where money does not have to be credited to an account in Russia, but the list is narrow and changes.

Separately from repatriation, requirements for the mandatory sale of part of foreign currency proceeds have applied in different years. The state introduces and lifts them by its decisions, so the regime in force is checked as of the deal date.

When problems arise

• The buyer has paid, but its bank or a correspondent bank does not let the payment through, and the money is stuck on the way.
• The buyer is slow to pay, while the contract deadline is approaching.
• The money has arrived in a third party’s account abroad instead of your account in Russia.

Missing deadlines carries fines under the Code of Administrative Offenses. If a deadline slips for an objective reason, work with the bank and the counterparty right away, not after it expires. An amendment setting a new deadline sometimes helps.

How we handle it

We help recover stuck proceeds only with lawful instruments: assignment of claim (cession), change of payer under an agreement of the parties, receipt through another agent from our pool. The structure is reviewed by a lawyer before the deal. More on the Repatriation of export proceeds page.

This is a general overview. We decide on your deal after reviewing the documents.