One of the largest banks in Austria, the financial group Raiffeisen, has decided to get rid of its Russian division, Raiffeisenbank. This was announced by the CEO of the group, Johann Strobl, during the annual meeting of shareholders. The decision to leave the Russian market was discussed amid strong pressure from the European Central Bank (ECB) and US authorities to reduce the presence of the Austrian group in Russia.
At the moment, the Austrian holding is considering two options: either the sale of the Russian division, or the withdrawal of the asset outside the financial group. Strobl noted that all transactions will be carried out in accordance with the law and all requirements of Western sanctions.
“We will continue to reduce our work in Russia until we complete this potential transaction. At the same time, the Russian Raiffeisenbank will continue to conduct certain banking operations in order to comply with the terms of the license. He will continue to support his customers, including those affected by the reduction in business,” Strobl promised.
The CEO also promised support to all employees of the financial group in all markets and recalled that more than 9,000 people work in the Russian division of the company. The British Financial Times notes that at the moment there are two contenders for the Russian assets of Raiffeisen. One of them is probably Sberbank, which, according to the Austrian media, was negotiating an asset swap. Sberbank offered the Austrian bank its European business, which was headquartered in Vienna.
At the moment, Raiffeisenbank remains the largest bank that has not been sanctioned by Western countries and is not disconnected from the international SWIFT system. Now about 50% of all international transactions from Russia go through it. Another foreign bank, Unicredit, which belongs to the Italian financial group of the same name, is in a similar position, but so far the authorities of Western countries have not exerted such pressure on it. The United States suspects the Austrian group of helping the Russians circumvent sanctions, and recently the ECB demanded that Raiffeisen present a plan to withdraw or at least fundamentally reduce Russian business.
At the same time, the Austrian group is unlikely to be able to simply leave the Russian market, since according to the decree of the Russian President, all transactions with foreign companies after the start of the war with Ukraine must be approved by a special government commission. Without her approval, the deal will not close.