Nabiullina: no appeals were received to the Central Bank regarding the exchange of assets with European banks

Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Bank of Russia, said that the Central Bank had not received any requests for permission to exchange assets with European banks. Previous edition of Der Standard reportedthat the Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is exploring the possibility of exchanging its Russian subsidiary, Raiffeisenbank, with Sberbank for the assets of Sberbank Europe.

“We have not received such appeals,” Ms. Nabiullina said at a press conference following a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Russia.

According to Elvira Nabiullina, the regulator will promptly consider such applications if they are received by the Central Bank.

Raiffeisenbank is included in the list of 45 credit institutions for which Russia has established a ban on transactions with shares, shares and contributions to authorized capital, unless a special permit is received not only from the Central Bank, but also from the government commission. The list was approved by President Vladimir Putin at the end of October 2022.

Earlier on the exchange of Russian assets of Raiffeisen Bank International for its European assets had tried agree with VTB. However, it was not possible to reach an agreement, as the potential deal “did not find a solution at the political level,” said Andrey Kostin, head of VTB. Now, according to Der Standard, such negotiations leads Sberbank. The Austrian bank called the likelihood of concluding an asset swap deal with Sberbank a “theoretical consideration” and did not comment on how likely it was to be carried out.

Alexander Kislov