Yes, they can.

If it's a significantly large sum, it may look like this:

Step 1: The CEO of the debtor bank calls the CEO of the creditor bank and asks to return the money.

Step 2 (only needed if there is disagreement): Lawyers of the debtor bank send a ton of legal papers to the creditor bank and figure it out.

But it's just one of nearly infinite number of scenarios.

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AlotOfReading an hour ago | parent [-]

And if the creditor bank happens to be in Russia, Iran, the DRPK, or any number of other hostile financial systems, the debtor bank will likely find things practically impossible to unwind regardless.

Sometimes they get lucky though and the government passes a law allowing them to seize equivalent assets a few decades down the road.

	▲	YesThatTom2 10 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That proves the value of a well-regulated financial system.
	▲	pllbnk an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Making transfers to those countries is almost impossible from Western banks. It would require sophisticated multi-bank international transfers to do that, which take a long time and are fairly easy to stop.
	▲	lokar 37 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		They are already excluded from the financial system.