FRANKFORT (Reuters) – Eurozone banks with a presence in Russia are likely to leave the country quickly, the European banking regulator warned on Tuesday in an explicit call to end operations in the Russian market more than a year after the start of the crisis. invasion of Ukraine.
“I think it’s important that banks stay focused on reducing their exposures (to Russia) and ideally exit this market as soon as they can,” Andrea told a conference. Enria, the head of banking sector supervision at the European Central Bank (ECB).
A handful of European banks, including Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International and Italy’s UniCredit, still operate in Russia.
Andrea Enria admitted that the banks no longer granted new loans in Russia and that it was difficult to sell their local subsidiaries due to pressure exerted by Moscow, which requires the approval of the Russian president for any transfer.
But the supervisor insisted on the need to continue the efforts.
“This is a move that we welcome, but we also strongly urge banks to implement it, as continuing to operate in Russia poses considerable reputational risk,” he said.
Raiffeisen and UniCredit, which both say they are cutting back their business in Russia, play an important role in the Russian economy, which is struggling with Western sanctions.
Raiffeisen, the main Western bank in Russia, said it was considering a spin-off or sale of its local operations.
(Report Balazs Koranyi, writing John O’Donnell, Corentin Chapron, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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