The possibility of banks refusing to accept old dollars in Russia was assessed

Dollar bills do not have an "expiration date", so Russians have no right to refuse to accept such banknotes. This is how Nikita Chaplin , a member of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes, assessed the possibility of banks refusing to accept old dollars in Russia, as quoted by TASS .

All Federal Reserve notes issued after 1914 are considered legal tender and must be accepted as payment, the lawmaker said, citing U.S. law.

“Russian banks also have no legal grounds to refuse to accept old-style dollars if they are in satisfactory condition and do not raise any doubts about their authenticity,” he explained.

According to the parliamentarian, each bank in Russia can establish criteria for assessing the condition of foreign banknotes, but they must not contradict the law and infringe on consumer rights. If a citizen has a dispute with any organization, he has the right to seek help from Rospotrebnadzor , the court or the Central Bank .

Problems with exchanging dollars issued before 2013 began in the fall of 2024. The head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets , Anatoly Aksakov, stated that the authorities cannot command banks whether to accept them or not. This is not a problem for the regulator, it is a problem for those who purchased this foreign currency and "suddenly realized that it is not so easy to get rid of it," he added.

According to economist Nikolai Kulbaka, banks do not want to deal with old-style dollars because of the costs of exchanging them. Therefore, the bank has no choice but to take these dollars at a discount. However, there are still organizations in the country where you can exchange such currency with a small commission or without it at all. "Theoretically, if we had normal money circulation with the United States and Europe, this problem would not exist at all," he admitted.