According to a report by ECO, from the list of about 700 corporate and individual entities that have already been sanctioned by the European Union (EU) against Russia because of the war in Ukraine, the Portuguese authorities have identified and frozen only one individual bank account in a financial institution in Portugal with only €242.

It was not possible to identify the name of the financial institution or the customer in question. According to information collected by ECO, if the reduced amount may leave doubts that the bank account may have been emptied at the last minute to escape sanctions, the authorities have no record of significant movements before the entry into force of the restrictive measures.

All banks and other financial entities, such as cryptocurrency platforms, in Portugal are required to report to the supervisor if they have exposure to Russian oligarchs or companies close to the Vladimir Putin regime and that are on the increasingly extensive “blacklist” of sanctions of the EU.

Of the approximately 250 financial institutions that are under the supervision of the Bank of Portugal in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing, only 16 have communicated to the supervisor in this area, with 15 of them doing so only to clarify that they do not have exposure to entities that have been sanctioned.