According to Bloomberg, the European Central Bank (ECB) has begun to demand that banks exit the Russian market as soon as possible because it is afraid of strong sanctions from the United States.
The US is trying to influence European banks that still operate in Russia
More than two years have passed since the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. Still, despite this, large European creditors continue their activities in the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, although they promised to stop it a long time ago.
What is important to understand is that the total number of CEOs of the five European Union banks with the largest operations in Russia has fallen by only 3% since the invasion, while profits have roughly tripled thanks to high interest rates.
Just now, the European Central Bank is trying to do everything possible to accelerate the exit of those banks that are still working in the Russian Federation.
According to journalists, one of the main reasons for intensifying pressure on the ECB is that the US has started threatening offending banks with solid sanctions and hefty fines.
European banks operating in Russia: details
Journalists found out that Raiffeisen bank, which assures that it has "significantly reduced its activities in Russia", has de-facto increased the number of its personnel in the aggressor country of the Russian Federation by 7% - to almost 10,000.
Hungary's OTP Bank is one of the few EU lenders that can take money out of the country.
Company representatives say they fully comply with the sanctions and want to exit the market. Still, Russian regulators are making it difficult to sell the division at a fair price.
Italy's UniCredit SpA operates in Russia through a subsidiary with approximately 3,100 employees and more than 50 branches. The Milan-based bank says it has set aside more than 800 million euros to cover defaults in Russia from 2022 and cut its loan portfolio by two-thirds.
