How the war in Ukraine is currently affecting banking – Questions and answers

In these exceptional circumstances, we accept either an international passport or a valid Ukrainian identity document (passport of the citizen of Ukraine) as proof of identity if it also includes your details in English in Roman characters and if your identity can be verified from the document. If your identity document does not include your details in English in Roman characters, you will also need to provide us with a document from the Embassy of Ukraine verifying your identity.

See our guide to opening banking services

Ознайомтеся детальніше з інформацією на відкриття банківських послуг

Здесь вы можете ознакомиться с инструкциями по открытию банковских услуг 

As a rule, you should keep enough cash on hand to cover your daily needs for a few days. For security reasons, it is not a good idea to keep large amounts of cash around the house. The safest place for your money is in your bank account. You can withdraw cash from branches offering cashier services as well as from ATMs and from K-food, Tokmanni and R-kioski stores in connection with card purchases.

We will continue to serve our customers as usual. We are monitoring the situation closely.

Due to the restrictions imposed by Visa and Mastercard, Nordea’s debit and credit cards will stop working in Russia within a few days. It will not be possible to pay for purchases in stores or withdraw cash at ATMs. Nordea’s cards cannot be used for making purchases in Russian online shops either.

Nordea has imposed similar restrictions on card purchases and withdrawals as well as credit transfers made in Belarus (updated on 9 August 2022).

Nordea complies with all applicable sanctions, laws and regulations. We want to ensure that our customers do the same. Due to the current sanctions regime and the restrictions in force, Nordea has stopped processing of payments to and from Russia and Belarus.

The European Union has decided to exclude seven Russian banks from the Swift payment system. The decision concerns the following banks: Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Bank Rossiya Bank, Sovcombank, Vnesheconombank (VEB) and VTB Bank. The decision will take effect on 12 March 2022. As of this date, payments will not be transferred to or from these banks.

As a rule, you should be able to use your account, card and online access codes as usual if they are from a Finnish bank.

The safest way is to donate any amount you like to a reputable charity. These organizations have more information on their websites about how you can donate.  You can find a list of reputable charities on the website of Finance FinlandOpens new window for example.

You can find a list of reputable charities on the website of Finance Finland, for example. Charities are listed on Finance Finland’s website Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of the situation and pretending to raise money for Ukraine through fake social media and text message collections. We recommend that you only give money through a reputable charity. You should never share your banking details with outsiders on social media or by clicking any links.

To open banking services, you need to have an identity document and the right of residence in Finland – in other words, these documents:

• a valid passport (not an alien’s passport)
• a residence permit or a certificate of a pending application (for more information, visit the website of the Finnish Immigration Service).

We serve customers by appointment in Finnish, Swedish and English. If you don’t speak these languages, you will need to bring an interpreter.

See our guide to opening banking services

Ознайомтеся детальніше з інформацією на відкриття банківських послуг

Здесь вы можете ознакомиться с инструкциями по открытию банковских услуг 

If you don’t need your savings right away, it’s good to keep a cool head and continue saving as usual. Our best advice is to stick to your investment plan and try to avoid selling if you don’t need to. Investment always involves risks but prices will eventually rebound in the long term, although it’s practically impossible to predict when.

Trading in the units of the Nordea Russia Fund has been suspended until further notice as of 28 February 2022. The Nordea Eastern Europe Fund has been closed to buy orders as of 1 March. The fund has been reopened for sell orders as of 14 March and it will no longer invest in Russia.

With the exception of the above, Nordea no longer accepts subscription orders in funds that fulfil one of the criteria below: 

• the fund’s name includes the words “Eastern Europe” or “Russia”
• other funds that invest more than 10% of their assets in the Russian market.

Nordea’s Savings and Premium balanced funds have no direct investments in Russia, Ukraine or Nordea’s Russia or Eastern Europe Funds. Our emerging market equity and fixed income funds have a small exposure to these countries but the exposure is less than 1%.

Russia’s military operations have increased uncertainty around both the economic and interest rate outlook. Right now, the most likely scenario is that interest rates will rise in the next few years but maybe slightly later than previously expected. However, it’s difficult to predict how quickly interest rates will rise at the moment, and we cannot rule out the possibility of the opposite happening, either.

You can prepare for a rise in interest rates with regular saving or interest rate hedging, i.e. an interest rate cap or fixed rate. In the long term, regular saving alongside paying off your home loan helps you build a buffer and gives you some financial leeway even if your loan costs increase. Interest rate hedging (interest rate cap or fixed rate) helps ensure your repayment amount stays within set limits despite higher interest rates.

We closed all our banking activities in Russia in 2021.

Nordea Asset Management (NAM) has decided to exclude all Russian investments, including government bonds, equities and bonds. NAM has been in the process of reducing its exposure to Russia for some time and, in line with the exclusion decision, will continue to do so further to the extent possible. The exclusion concerns all Nordea Funds.