The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury has launched an investigation into Raiffeisen Bank International in connection with its Russian business, Reuters reports . According to the source of the agency, the regulatory body requested information from the Austrian bank about its activities in Russia, as well as in the territory of the partially occupied Donbass, Ukraine and Syria.
In particular, OFAC asked for information about transactions and activities of individual clients. Officials asked for a response by February, but the bank's lawyers convinced them to wait, promising to provide all the required information in three stages: in early April, May and June.
Raiffeisen Bank International told Reuters that it received a request from US authorities in January and that it was not related to a specific transaction or business. The bank representative emphasized that the organization has procedures in place to ensure compliance with the sanctions and that it is fully cooperating with OFAC. He also noted that the questions asked by the supervisory authority were "of a general nature."
Raiffeisen Bank International's subsidiary in Russia, Raiffeisenbank, is deeply integrated into the Russian financial system. It is one of two foreign banks on the list of thirteen "systemically important credit institutions" of the Central Bank of Russia.
