Raiffeisen Bank International has suspended efforts to sell its unit in Russia amid warming ties between Moscow and Washington, the Financial Times (FT) reported on April 18, citing undisclosed sources.
The Austrian lender reported a net loss of 926 million euros ($955 million) in the fourth quarter of 2024, primarily due to provisions in its Russian subsidiary.
In 2023, the Russian branch of Raiffeisen Bank earned over $1 billion in the first three quarters, which accounted for about 50% of the group's total profit. The bank also paid 277 million euros ($284 million) in taxes to Russia over the same period, Bloomberg reported.
Austria-headquartered Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) agreed to sell its stake in its Belarusian subsidiary Priorbank, marking the first step toward fully withdrawing from the Belarusian market, RBI announced on Sept. 20.
Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) was warned by the U.S. Treasury that its access to the U.S. financial system could be curbed due to its continued presence in the Russian market, Reuters reported on May 15.
The Vienna-based bank group, the largest remaining Western bank in Russia, has been under increasing pressure since the start of Russia's all-out war to scale down its activities in the country.
Raiffeisen has been interested in buying a 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) stake in the construction company Strabag, which is linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
The largest Western banks that continue to operate in Russia have paid 800 million euros ($857 million) in taxes to its budget in 2023, which is four times more than before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing its analysis.
Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said on April 18 that it expects a request by European regulators to accelerate the wind-down of business in Russia.
Raiffeisen Bank in Austria announced its decision on April 16 to replace job advertisements that featured "misleading language," suggesting an expansion of the bank's operations in Russia.
