Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, announced, on Wednesday 2 March, that it is withdrawing from the European market as it undergoes a restructuring process initiated after the adoption of international sanctions targeting the Russian banking sector in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (see EUROPE 12900/8).
“The group’s subsidiary banks are facing abnormal cash outflows and threats to the security of their employees and branches”, Sberbank announced in a statement quoted by the Russian press.
On Tuesday evening, the Single Resolution Board (SRB), the European authority in charge of resolving failing banks within the euro area banking union, had detailed the measures taken in the resolution procedure for Sberbank’s Austrian, Slovenian and Croatian subsidiaries, which are present in eight countries in Europe (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina).
In particular, the Slovenian and Croatian subsidiaries of the Russian bank were sold to the largest Slovenian banking group, Nova Ljubljanska Banca, a takeover that maintained the continuity of the retail banking activities of both entities. The Austrian subsidiary will be dissolved in accordance with Austrian banking insolvency law.
According to EU law, eligible deposits from individuals and companies are guaranteed up to €100,000.
Along with Gazprombank, Sberbank is not among the seven banks facing expulsion from the Swift interbank payment messaging system (see other news). On the other hand, it has been subject to other types of financial sanctions by the EU since 2014 and the outbreak of the war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
See the SRB’s decisions: https://aeur.eu/f/kp (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)