FT: Raiffeisenbank handles half of Russia’s external payments

“Daughter” of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) in Russia – Raiffeisenbank – services 40-50% of Russia’s payments with other countries. About it Financial Times said the top manager of the bank.

“On the one hand, we have very good results, but on the other, we have huge problems,” said Raiffeisen CEO Johann Strobl. In the third quarter of 2022, Raiffeisenbank provided 68% of the financial result of the entire group. Last week it became known that the US Treasury is investigating the bank’s work in Russia.

“Strategically we are completely torn,” an unnamed Raiffeisen manager told the FT. At the same time, he noted that the bank is still taking some actions. According to the FT, the bank severed ties with about 30 large Russian clients – businessmen and companies, and also reduced its corporate loan portfolio by 30% in 2022. But what to do next, the leadership of the Austrian bank does not know. “If you want to sell a bank, then to whom to sell if you no longer have a loan portfolio,” the manager said.

Raiffeisen told investors that even with the write-off of the Russian business, it would still have a core Tier 1 capital ratio — a key indicator of a bank’s balance sheet — of 13.5%, well above the minimum required by regulators.

On February 17, it became known that Raiffeisen limited the correspondent network of banks in Russia to five organizations. The remaining banks were forced to border transfers in dollars and euros.

Read about the financial performance of the organization in the material “Raiffeisenbank collected accounts.”

Anastasia Larina