Raiffeisen Bank International reduced income in Russia – Kommersant

The consolidated profit of the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) in the first quarter of 2023 increased to €657 million from €442 million in the first quarter of 2022. This is evidenced by preliminary information from the report of the group. Net interest income rose to almost €1.4 billion from €986 million in the same period last year. However, in Russia, RBI interest income is declining. The Group has stated that new business in Russia has been largely halted since the CBO.

RBI’s net fee and commission income also grew 1.4 times to €966m. Net trading and revaluation income for the group as a whole fell 2.1x to €86m. At the same time, the group notes a significant decline in fee and commission income in Russia. RBI’s provisioning expense in the first quarter was €301m, primarily from Russia and Belarus (cumulative €278m).

At the end of 2022, Russia was the center of profitability for RBI (more than half of the result), and the Russian Raiffeisenbank showed the second result among banks – 141 billion rubles. profit (cf. “Kommersant” from March 16).

Recently, the Italian Unicredit Group reported for the first quarter of this year. Russian business (includes the bank of the same name and a leasing company) improved its performance, its net profit amounted to €98 million against a loss of €916 million in the first quarter of 2022. Both interest income (by 69%, to €212 million) and commission income (by 1.6 times, to €46 million) increased, but income from trading operations decreased by 4.4 times, to €16 million.

Both groups are considering possible options for leaving Russia, however, for the sale of banks, they will have to obtain special permission from the highest level (see Kommersant of October 26, 2022).

Olga Sherunkova