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The central bank of Russia will review plans of foreign banks to sell local assets on a case-by-case basis, Reuters reported citing governor Elvira Nabiullina.
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The news comes after Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev stated that foreign lenders’ efforts to sell Russian assets will be blocked as long as Russian banks cannot operate normally overseas.
“Each decision will be taken individually,” the central bank chief told a briefing, adding that Western regulators’ attitude towards Russian banks’ units abroad will be considered during the review.
Earlier, sources told the news agency that Russia’s central bank is resisting domestic calls to take control of foreign banks’ local operations.
The banking regulator is concerned that such a move could trigger depositors to withdraw bank deposits.
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By GlobalData“Currently, there are no grounds for introducing external management at foreign banks’ units,” Nabiullina was quoted by the news agency as saying.
Italy’s UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International and US banking group Citi are among those looking to exit Russia.
French group Societe Generale and British lender HSBC have found a way to sell their Russian assets.
Meanwhile, a Moscow court banned Swiss banking firm Credit Suisse from selling shares in its Russian arm.
The court also ordered the seizure of €10m from Credit Suisse after the bank failed to repay a loan to a sanctioned bank.
In a separate development, several Russian retail investors reached out to VTB Bank seeking compensation for the losses they suffered on their foreign investments after the US-led western alliance sanctioned the lender.
