In view of situation with Ukraine

We are not taking any fees from payments made to Ukrainian accounts. We will compensate fees for all such payments from 24 February 2022. Luminor recommends retail customers to use the charge type option where sender pays all transfer charges (OUR) in cross-border payments to Ukraine. In this case, a beneficiary will receive the payment amount in full.

Also, we will offer support to Ukrainian refugees regarding banking services: faster process for account opening, opening accounts free of charge and issuing free code calculators, among other.

Please be aware that Luminor is suspending outgoing payments to Russia and Belarus from 1 June 2022 and incoming payments from Russia and Belarus from 1 July 2022 in all currencies.

We are discontinuing the service as a pre-emptive measure to avoid potential losses for our customers and Luminor alike as a consequence of unpredictable yet rapidly deteriorating external factors.

The only individual exceptions may be made in cases of critical state needs and humanitarian supplies (e.g medical goods, pensions etc).

Ruble (RUB) currency exchange is fully closed in Latvia.

Incoming payments in rubles (RUB) are discontinued as of 16 March 2022.  
 
On 2 May 2022, Luminor will discontinue all services in RUB. These services include outgoing RUB payments, deposits, and currency exchange. 

Luminor has suspended outgoing payments to Russia from 1 June 2022 and will be suspending incoming payments from Russia from 1 July 2022 in all currencies.

From 23 February, there are restriction on Saxo platform on trading all asset classes with links to Russian market:

• If a customer already has positions with any links to Russian market in it is no longer possible to increase position;
• Russian bonds issued after 14.06.2021. are subject of sanction and customer can’t trade them.

The invasion of Ukraine has led to imposition of new sanctions issued by United States of America, United Kingdom and European Union. Luminor is following the sanctions and restrictions in place.

We also encourage our customers to see that their transaction parties are not sanctioned, as sanctions apply to everyone, not only banks. This will support a smoother process of payment order fulfilment by the bank.

Considering the current situation, sanctions regulations and restrictions may rapidly change and have different outcomes, changes in respect to the services provided by Luminor Bank. There is more information about sanctions available on our website.

Processing time of international payments can be longer than usual.

No, there is no direct impact on banking services, we continue normal operations. 

There has been no change, the usual withdrawal limits apply. We would like to remind our customers to make sure they haven’t reached the regular withdrawal limit of their cards when using ATMs.

Considering the current situation, there may be further changes taking place in some areas. We will keep you informed and provide updates on a regular basis.

Following all sanctions and restrictions imposed, Luminor continues to operate as usual, including financing our customers. We haven’t implemented any new restrictions to our approach and follow the same principles of responsible lending and our risk appetite as always – assessing each case individually. Among other, it means carrying out additional analysis on the implications from the current situation (e.g potential supply chain restrictions, sanction related risks, etc. for legal entities or income stability for private individuals).

The invasion of Ukraine has brought inconceivable loss for Ukrainians and significantly increased geopolitical uncertainty for the whole world. It has also had an economic impact and below we have outlined our assessment of the current situation and how Luminor's investment management team is navigating these changes.

Luminor's Investment management team has been reducing the level of risk in investment portfolios since the beginning of the year. This was mainly to protect against the likely negative impact of monetary policy tightening. As a result, our overall investments in equities have been slightly lower than usual and we have shifted exposure to defensive sectors which tend to outperform the market in uncertain times.

Financial markets across the world have reacted negatively, with equity markets selling off and oil price spiking. Western countries have already started to punish Russia’s military action by imposing sanctions and trade restrictions. The situation is developing rapidly and it is impossible to estimate the impact of these actions. However, we expect them to have economic consequences, especially for European countries which are rely on Russian energy supply.
 
During previous military conflicts financial markets have sold off on the initial negative sentiment and then recovered relatively quickly. However, the crucial factor is the duration of the military conflict itself. While we hope for a quick resolution, it is uncertain how long the conflict will last and how this might impact risk appetite in financial markets. In any case, the imposed sanctions are unlikely to be removed anytime.

After careful consideration, we have decided to further decrease the equity allocation in portfolios by reducing exposure to European equities, as the region is most at risk in case of further escalation. In addition, we see a deterioration in outlook for High yield bonds and Emerging market debt and are reducing our exposure there in light of this.
 
We will continue monitoring how the conflict unfolds, assess the possible economic consequences, and adjust portfolios accordingly. Meanwhile we hope for quick restoration of peace.

Payments will not be executed with the sanctioned banks listed below. Please bear in mind that even if the payment does not involve one of the banks listed below, it might still be impacted by any of the different sanction restrictions. The sanction restrictions and regulations in response to the invasion of Ukraine are changing dynamically, therefore the provided list is not exhaustive.
 

All incoming and outgoing payments to/from SBERBANK are not allowed since 26 March, 2022. Please be informed that the list of Sberbank names, SWIF/BIC codes is not exhaustive.

No need for any actions. Payment refund could take some days.

Visa and Mastercard have announced that they are suspending cooperation with Russia from 9 March at 23.00 Eastern European Time.

As a result, cards issued in Russia can no longer be used in other countries and also cards issued in other countries (incl. Luminor cards) cannot be used at merchants in Russia. Our cardholders can't make purchases at Russian e-commerce merchants and physical merchants in Russia.

Our cardholders can't make purchases at Russian e-commerce merchants and physical merchants in Russia.

Luminor continues to operate as usual. The assets of bank customers are protected by the Guarantee Fund Act of the Republic of Estonia. Pursuant to the European Union Deposit Insurance Directive depositor protection, customers are reimbursed for deposits with accrued interest in full, but not more than 100,000 euros.

Customer securities such as  Shares, bonds and other financial instruments traded on the Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius stock exchanges are held in the bank's nominee account in the local Nasdaq CSD. Financial instruments traded on other markets are held by the bank in nominee/omnibus accounts with other banks (e.g. Citi, Euroclear, Saxo).

Luminor Bank AS safeguards financial instruments of their customers separately from Bank’s own financial instruments, i.e. the customers’ financial instruments are recorded off balance and cannot be used to satisfy claims of creditors of the Bank in case of insolvency. This pertains to both Luminor Investor platform instruments, as well as instruments traded though other investment services (e.g Citi, Euroclear).

Luminor Investor platform customers’ cash and financial instruments as well as financial instruments safeguarded in Financial instrument account are also guaranteed under Guarantee Fund Act of the Republic of Estonia Investor Compensation Scheme. The scheme ensures that every investor is entitled to reimbursement of 90% of irreversibly lost financial instruments’ value or loss incurred due to failed investment service, yet no more than EUR 20,000.

More information about the Guarantee Fund can be found here and on bank’s website.