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Moscow - In the rush to serve clients keen to open rouble accounts, staff at the first Russian bank to open its doors in Crimea have yet to find time to open the boxes stacked in the entrance or put up a proper sign.
Instead they are relying on a plastic banner with letters in red saying: "Russian National Commercial Bank: Your Russian bank in Crimea."
Not that RNCB needs to advertise its services. With Ukrainian and Western banks closing, Crimea's 2 million people have been forced to deal with a cash economy since Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula last month.
This is an illustration of the economic obstacles that might lie ahead for a contested region.
Only three Russian banks have moved to fill the vacuum, the patriotism stirred by President Vladimir Putin by reclaiming "an inseparable part of Russia" falling flat in the face of Western sanctions that have deterred the country's big lenders.
In particular, many Russian lenders have been alarmed at moves by Visa and MasterCard to stop providing services, albeit in most cases temporarily, for transactions involving banks whose shareholders were on a US blacklist.
RNCB was the first Russian bank into Crimea after the region's annexation, hurriedly setting up in some of the branches left empty by Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russian state-owned banks, Sberbank, VTB and Bank of Moscow, that have curtailed their work in the region.
It has been followed by two small Russia-focused regional banks whose limited business activities - they have few dealings outside Russia - means they have less to fear from sanctions than larger financial institutions with international exposure.
Lack of options
For Crimea's small businesses and residents, the lack of options has translated into long queues at hastily furnished branches like this one in the Crimean capital of Simferopol to open rouble accounts.
"One of the most pressing problems is the banking system," Alexander Batalin, chairman of electrical tools manufacturer Phiolent, who opened an account at RNCB last week.
Last month, his factory paid its 1,800 employees in cash after its accounts at Ukraine's Privatbank were frozen. The company has been unable to complete an order for new European equipment.
"The banking system is developing very slowly. There are only two banks (that are working) but there are such lines there, they aren't ready to service the new demand," he said.
