Moscow has accelerated plans for the exit of Western banks that continue to operate in the country. Tensions in Ukraine and Western sanctions have made it difficult for banks and companies to leave Russia. Last year, the Kremlin banned the sale of financial assets in response to sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States. To get out of Russia Western banks need a permit special by the Russian government. Putin banned a 45 banking organizations to carry out transactions with shares without government approval, as established by a decree dated October 26, 2022. "The Russian president" - explains the August measure - "reserves the right to authorize the sale of shares held by subjects of hostile nations only with a decision special". Consequently, the strategies of companies depend on the choices or wishes of the leader.
Now however, the Russian authorities, worried about control by "hostile" countries, have adopted a new position on operations of large foreign banks in Russia. And Intesa Sanpaolo should take advantage of it.
The Bank, led by Carlo Messina, would seem to be about to get approval to transfer its Russian operations to a local Russian management. This news was confirmed by sources familiar with the matter to both Reuters and the independent Russian collective Agentsmedia. At the moment the decision is precisely in the hands of Vladimir Putin.
The Société Générale case
The complex situation has led most of the foreign banks in Russia to continue their operations in the country. With one exception: Société Générale, which sold its stake in rosbank and in insurance branches a Interros Capital shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, undergoing a loss of more than three billion.
The French bank, which was among the most exposed (with 18 billion euros), has divested its banking and insurance businesses al Interros Capital Fund in April of 2022. This fund is related to oligarch Vladimir Potanin, currently considered one of the closest to Vladimir Putin. The sale took place practically at a very low value, selling Rosbank at zero.
The situation of Entente in Russia
Understanding has engaged in this period in the activity of risk reduction (derisking) in Russia. "We can now be considered a bank with zero exposure to Russia, but we will continue to work to reduce the limited residual exposure," said CEO Messina already at the end of last year.
At the end of June, the Italian bank had significantly reduced loans to Russian customers, with a decrease of 77% compared to the previous year for cross-border loans (700 million euros) and 66% for local loans (100 million euros). In the third quarter of 2022, exposure to Russia had been reduced by 65%, equivalent to 2,3 billion euros, representing 0,3% of the bank's total loans. To date, overall Russia represents only 0,2% of loans to customers. Since last August 1, the representative office in Moscow which refers to IMI Cib international network has also been closed.
On the transfer front there have been many speculations but few confirmations. There was mainly talk of an involvement of gazprombank, the third largest bank in Russia with assets of 7.530 trillion rubles.
Unlike Unicredit, which has been negotiating the sale of its Russian assets for several months (source Bloomberg), Understandinghaving smaller dimensions, is not entered in the official list of systemic banks.
Raiffeisenbank is also outgoing
After the war started, Raiffeisen Bank announced its intention to exit the Russian market, by selling assets or separating them from the group. RBI CEO Johann Strobl indicated that this separation could take place by the end of 2023. It seems that a "non-Russian" customer is interested in the assets of the Austrian bank.
