Tinkoff was included in the EU's tenth package of sanctions against Russia outlined last week following Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine. It has already been forced to suspend some trading in EUR and had its app removed from the App Store.
The Eurobond issuer, TCS Finance D.A.S, which is also part of the TCS group, said it was notified on March 3 that Tinkoff had cancelled the payment of interest, due on March 15, accrued on a USD 300 million perpetual bond.
The issuer said interest on March 15 would be automatically cancelled as a result. It added that noteholders would be deemed to ‘irrevocably waive their right to receive, and no longer have any rights against the issuer or any other party with respect to payment of the March 2023 interest’.
Tinkoff said the bond's documentation allowed the issuer to cancel coupon payments.
Founded as a specialist credit card provider by entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov, Tinkoff has grown rapidly over the last decade and is listed as one of the central bank's 13 systemically important financial institutions in Russia.
In July 2022, Tinkoff suspended outgoing SWIFT transfers in foreign currencies until October 2022, after it had struggled with such transactions due to restrictions on Russia's banks. Some Russian lenders have started charging fees for accounts in USD and EUR as the sanctions-hit sector grapples with its new reality since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Tinkoff has introduced a commission on incoming SWIFT transfers.
In February 2023, the European Union agreed to impose new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The EU's president stated the measures are aimed at military and political decision-makers, corporations supporting or operating inside the Russian military sector, and commanders in the Wagner Group.
Tinkoff is one of the institutions that will cease EUR trading following the adoption of new European Union sanctions. Tinkoff stated in a separate statement that it has devised counter-measures to the penalties that would allow assets to be transferred to a new non-sanctioned firm within three weeks.
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