American banks stop servicing Ukrainian entrepreneurs

Ukrainian entrepreneurs who have accounts at Mercury Bank faced new restrictions:

Today, Ukrainian entrepreneurs cooperating with the USA received a notice from Mercury Bank about the termination of servicing of their accounts. The letter states that due to recent changes, the bank will stop supporting accounts of companies whose founders hold passports of the following countries:

- Belarus

- Cuba

- Iran

- North Korea

- Russia

- Syria

- Ukraine!

- Venezuela

This decision caused outrage among Ukrainian entrepreneurs.

This is not the first time that the American financial system creates difficulties for Ukrainians. Earlier this year, there were problems with the transfer of funds from the Chase bank account to Ukraine. Even before the start of the full-scale war, in January 2021, the Robinhood financial service blocked access from Ukrainian IP addresses.

With the start of the war, many American sites also began to block traffic from Ukraine, and you can only access them through a VPN.

This situation raises many questions about the motives of such decisions and the impact on further cooperation between Ukraine and the USA.

Olena Deilid

Junior Legal Secretary