The bank has said that claims that it frozen money linked to Russia was a re-classification of assets.

Credit Suisse says it remains committed to the Russian market despite reports stating that it has frozen around SFr5 billion ($5 billion) of money linked to the country to avoid falling foul of US sanctions.

The move by the Zurich-listed bank underscores a widespread fear among banks of reprisals from Washington for working with targeted Russian individuals and entities. For Russia’s elite, such steps could close off an important avenue for finance as well as a safe haven for billions of rubles. In March, this publication reported on the UK scrutiny of wealthy Russian individuals after the Salisbury poisoning.

“Credit Suisse works with international regulators wherever it does business to ensure compliance including sanctions involving Russia. Following recent US sanctions and given US regulatory restrictions, Credit Suisse re-classified certain impacted assets from assets under management to assets under custody. This re-classification, does not represent a freezing of the assets. In addition, non-sanctioned clients were not affected by the re-classification. Neither did this result in any financial loss or provision. We remain highly committed to Russia and continue to monitor developments," the bank said in a statement.

The latest round of sanctions was announced in April by US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, to penalise Russia for its annexation of Crimea, involvement in the war in Syria, and “attempting to subvert Western democracies”.

Roughly $6.2 billion of Russian cross-border outflows, went to Switzerland in 2017 - almost three times as much as went to the United States, according to Russian central bank data.