This paper examines the impact of financial sanctions on Russian banks, focusing on individual bank accounts using data from the Eurosystem’s real-time gross settlement system, TARGET2. The study analyzes the effects of various sanction measures, particularly the exclusion from SWIFT, a global financial messaging service. The findings indicate that financial sanctions have significantly reduced cross-border financial transactions with sanctioned Russian bank accounts, both in terms of the number of transactions and the volume of funds. The 2022 sanctions, which included stricter measures, had a more pronounced effect than the 2014 sanctions. The paper also explores the sensitivity of the results to different estimation methods and the inclusion of other countries, confirming the effectiveness of financial sanctions in restricting the financial activities of targeted institutions. The exclusion from SWIFT is found to have the most significant impact on reducing financial flows. Overall, the study provides empirical evidence that financial sanctions are effective in significantly reducing financial transactions with sanctioned Russian banks.This paper examines the impact of financial sanctions on Russian banks, focusing on individual bank accounts using data from the Eurosystem’s real-time gross settlement system, TARGET2. The study analyzes the effects of various sanction measures, particularly the exclusion from SWIFT, a global financial messaging service. The findings indicate that financial sanctions have significantly reduced cross-border financial transactions with sanctioned Russian bank accounts, both in terms of the number of transactions and the volume of funds. The 2022 sanctions, which included stricter measures, had a more pronounced effect than the 2014 sanctions. The paper also explores the sensitivity of the results to different estimation methods and the inclusion of other countries, confirming the effectiveness of financial sanctions in restricting the financial activities of targeted institutions. The exclusion from SWIFT is found to have the most significant impact on reducing financial flows. Overall, the study provides empirical evidence that financial sanctions are effective in significantly reducing financial transactions with sanctioned Russian banks.