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Russian subsidiaries of foreign banks such as Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and Citi have started looking for staff, Reuters has reported.
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The development follows Moscow’s decision to block foreign banks from exiting the country in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The conflict forced western banks operating in Russia to remove foreign nationals from top positions and find ways to exit the Russian banking space.
According to industry sources, mounting sanctions have left banks with limited options.
Last week, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said as long as Russian banks cannot operate normally abroad, Russia will block foreign banks from leaving the country.
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By GlobalDataNotably, the minister did not rule out the prospect of transferring foreign banks’ subsidiaries to local lenders.
Unnamed sources told the news agency that the Russian central bank has resisted calls to take control of foreign banks’ local operations. The banking regulator is concerned that such a move could push depositors to withdraw their funds.
The development has forced foreign lenders to fill positions after staff left earlier this year.
Banks began hiring when they realised that exiting Russia will not be easy, one of the industry sources said.
Between April and June this year, foreign lenders had few vacancies in Russia but in July, the situation is different, Russian recruitment company Headhunter told the news agency.
This month, Austria’s RBI posted 276 openings in Russia, while American lender Citi has 84 positions to fill in Russia, the recruitment firm said. Local arms of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit have also listed jobs on the portal.
Russia’s decision to block banks from exiting the country came as a relief for employees of foreign banks as many feared losing their job if banks closed their Russian operations, an unnamed source at a bank in Moscow said.
