Cash Repatriation

Corporate Treasury & Banking in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan

Report date: 
26 May 2026

Commentary

The end of empires. With our usual exquisite timing, CompleXCountries held a call to discuss the Caucuses and Central Asia in the very week that China’s President Xi Jinping chose to remind the renowned and erudite classical scholar, Donald J. Trump, that this is an issue which goes back to classical Greece.

This region is not only the site of the ancient Silk Road, which China has been trying to revive for over two decades, but it has also changed hands between the Ottoman Empire and Russia.  Many populations still speak Turkic languages, and, as became apparent, Russian is still the main international language, despite the end of the Soviet Union. With recent events in the Persian Gulf, China’s Belt and Road initiative may still be transformative.

For most MNCs, the region today does not reflect geopolitical tensions: the countries are true “frontier markets”: in all the countries discussed – Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan – only one foreign bank has a presence, and that is limited to Citibank’s office in Kazakhstan. HSBC pulled out of Armenia in 2024. MNCs have to work with local banks, and need local teams to manage the relationships. Peers even have to use local payment acquirers. 

Economically, these countries are generally stable, but not booming. Azerbaijan is the exception with its oil industry. Hard currency is readily available. Remittances out of the region are an issue due to the burdensome bureaucracy which accompanies them, not because of restrictive exchange controls and shortages of hard currency.

One skill, however, is essential to manage business and treasury in these countries: an ability to communicate in Russian, which is still used much more in the region than English. Many of the local banks have web sites which are only in Russian, or have few, if any, staff, who speak English. Every peer on the call has at least one staff member who speaks the language.

Operating issues:

  • Many peers sell from an offshore entity. This simplifies the remittance issue: locally, they often have a representative office. Some peers manufacture the in region, but this is usually restricted to one or two countries.
  • Peers generally found the local banks to be quite ....Please Login / Register to read the rest of this Commentary.
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Topics covered in this report: 
Cash Repatriation, Hedging FX, FX, Bank Relationships, Investing, card acquiring, PSP
Service providers discussed in this report: 
Citi, HSBC, OTP Bank, ABB (Azerbaijan), Unibank (Azerbaijan), Kapital Bank (Azerbaijan), Adyen, KDB Bank Uzbekistan, Halyk Bank (Kazakhstan), Pasha Bank (Azerbaijan), Bank CenterCredit/BCC (Kazakhstan), Ipoteka Bank (Uzbekistan), Yapi Kredi, Ardshinbank (Armenia)

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Corporate Treasury & Banking in Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and North Macedonia

Report date: 
13 Apr 2026

The Balkans is a difficult environment for corporate treasurers. Regulatory complexity, FX controls, multiple languages and scripts and limited presence of international banks mean that work arounds are often required. For example, SEPA (the Single European Payments Area): requires international transfer fees within the area to be aligned with local ones -  Most countries now price cross border transfers as local ones; Greece does the opposite. As a result, internal transfers in Greece are prohibitively expensive.

 

Our detailed report covers Treasurers’ experiences and approaches to Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and  North Macedonia.

 

Banks discussed in the report include: Citi,Raiffeisen Bank, UniCredit, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Alpha Bank, National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, Eurobank, Zagrebačka Banka, OTP Bank, Komercijalna Banka Skopje and  BRD Société Générale.

 

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Topics covered in this report: 
Bank Relationships, Cash Pooling - cross border, Cash Pooling - domestic, Notional Pooling, FX, Payments - cross border, Payments - domestic, payroll, KYC, Cash Repatriation
Service providers discussed in this report: 
BNP Paribas, Raiffeisen, Unicredit, Citi, Société Générale, Alpha Bank, National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, Eurobank, Zagrebačka Banka, OTP Bank, Komercijalna Banka Skopje

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Bank Relationships in the Middle East

Report date: 
19 Mar 2026

This report covers:

  • Commentary and Key Findings - please Register / LogIn to access this free commentary - a subscription is required to download the full report, or it can be purchased individually -  Enquire here
  • Bank Presence by Country
  • Banking Strategy and Consolidation
  • Treasurers' feedback on banks
  • HSBC
  • Standard Chartered
  • Citibank
  • JP Morgan
  • Deutsche Bank
  • Local and Regional Banks
  • Saudi Arabia — Structures and Challenges
  • Cash Management and Liquidity
  • Technology and Digital Banking
  • Organisational Structures and Regional Treasury Centres
  • Experiences in individual countries
  • UAE
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Kuwait
  • Oman
  • Qatar
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Iraq
  • Egypt
  • Turkey

 

 

Topics covered in this report: 
Bank Relationships, Cash Pooling - cross border, Notional Pooling, Cash Repatriation, Funding, Political Risk, Cards
Service providers discussed in this report: 
Amex, Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, SABB

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Banking in India: Relationships & Technology

Report date: 
16 Dec 2025

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The new CompleXCountries report on Banking in India: Relationships & Technology has now been published. The report is based on a detailed peer discussion between senior corporate treasury professionals from Europe and Asia in which they shared and compared their experiences with their relationship banking partners in India with a focus on how the Indian Government's digitisation initiatives are being experienced.

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The report covers practical experiences with:

  • Digitalisation
  • Bank Relationships - pricing & performance
  • Global Banks
  • Indian Banks
  • Bank portals & services
  • Bank guarantees
  • FX
  • FX Hedging
  • Tax & Customs payments
  • Funding 
  • Cards / T&E

The banks discussed in the full report include: JP Morgan, DBS, Citi, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, Barclays, ICICI, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India

Topics covered in this report: 
Bank Relationships, guarantees, FX, Hedging FX, Funding, GiftCity, T&E Management, Cards, Tax, Customs, Dividends, Royalties, Cash Repatriation
Service providers discussed in this report: 
ICICI, JP Morgan, Barclays, HSBC, Citi, DBS, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, FBIL

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How MNCs manage Corporate Treasury in Turkey

Report date: 
22 Oct 2025

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Topics covered in this report include:

  • Turkey’s recent economic conditions and inflation trends
  • Currency depreciation and exchange rate developments
  • Business and regulatory environment in Turkey
  • Tax structure and compliance challenges
  • Funding options and financing practices for companies
  • Use and impact of the Resource Utilisation Support Fund (RUSF)
  • Stamp duty and its implications for loans
  • Inter-company loans and cash management strategies
  • Hedging approaches and accounting under hyperinflation
  • Treatment of interest and foreign exchange transactions
  • Equity funding and capital management in subsidiaries
  • Cash pooling arrangements and restrictions
  • Role of international and local banks in Turkey
  • Bureaucracy and documentation requirements
  • Payment processing and local PSP requirements
  • Overall outlook and long-term confidence in the Turkish market

Banks discussed in this report include: Bank Mendes Gans, JP Morgan, Garanti, TEB, Citi, and ING

 

Topics covered in this report: 
Accounting Measurements, Bank Relationships, Cash Pooling - domestic, Notional Pooling, Funding, Cash Repatriation, Cash Pooling - cross border, Investments, Funding, Working Capital, Tax, PSP, FX, Hedging FX, Inflation
Service providers discussed in this report: 
JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Bank Mendes Gans, ING, TEB, Garanti BBVA, Citi

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Treasury Management in Argentina

Report date: 
1 Oct 2025

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Topics covered in this report: 
BOPREAL bonds, Cash - deposits, Cash Repatriation, Trapped cash, FX, Hedging FX, Political Risk
Service providers discussed in this report: 
ICBC, BNP Paribas, BBVA, Santander, Citi, JP Morgan, Itau

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Banking & Cash Management Challenges in South East Asia

Report date: 
10 Jul 2025

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Topics covered in this report: 
ASEAN, Bank Relationships, Cash Pooling - cross border, Cash Pooling - domestic, Trapped cash, KYC, Cash Repatriation, FX, Regional Treasury Centre, Regulatory relationships
Service providers discussed in this report: 
JP Morgan, DBS, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Citi, HSBC, Bank Ayudhya (MUFG), MUFG, Mizuho, Bank of America, Bank of PhilippineIslands, Bank Negara Malaysia, Bangkok Bank, Kyriba, Starfish Digital

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Banking & Cash Management in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

Report date: 
18 Jun 2025

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Topics covered in this report: 
Bank Accounts, Bank Relationships, Cash - deposits, Cash Pooling - cross border, Cash Pooling - domestic, Cash Repatriation, Local ownership
Service providers discussed in this report: 
JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of America

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Corporate Treasury & FX in Colombia, Chile & Peru

Report date: 
4 Mar 2025

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Topics covered in this report: 
Tax, Bank Relationships, Working Capital, Factoring, Payments - domestic, Payments - cross border, Payments-digital, payroll, Cash Repatriation, Hedging FX
Service providers discussed in this report: 
Banco Davivienda, Banco de Chile, Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Credito del Peru, Bank of America, JP Morgan, BBVA, Santander, Citi, Yappy

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Corporate Treasury & FX in South Africa

Report date: 
18 Feb 2025

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Topics covered in this report: 
FX, Hedging FX, Bank Relationships, Cash Pooling - domestic, Netting, Cash Repatriation, Trapped cash, Intercompany loans, Collections - domestic
Service providers discussed in this report: 
Standard Chartered, HSBC, Citi, Standard Bank, First National Bank (S Africa), JP Morgan

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