Citigroup, the American financial institution with the most important presence in Russia, stated it might broaden its deliberate withdrawal from the nation due to the battle in Ukraine.
Citi, which introduced plans final April to promote its Russian shopper division, will “increase the scope of that exit course of to incorporate different traces of enterprise,” Edward Skyler, the financial institution’s govt vice chairman for world public affairs, stated in a statement on Monday.
The financial institution will scale back its operations in Russia and unwind its publicity within the nation, together with shopper and company loans and different monetary merchandise.
“As a result of nature of banking and monetary providers operations, this choice will take time to execute,” Mr. Skyler wrote.
The financial institution will cease looking for new enterprise or shoppers in Russia and helps multinational firms unwind their operations there, Mr. Skyler stated. “We are going to proceed to handle our present regulatory commitments and our obligations to depositors, in addition to assist all of our workers throughout this very troublesome time,” he stated. The financial institution has about 3,000 workers in Russia.
Many world firms have shunned Russia on account of the invasion, which prompted Western governments to impose a raft of sanctions meant to cripple its financial system. Goldman Sachs on Thursday grew to become the primary massive American financial institution to say it can depart Russia. Hours later, JPMorgan Chase, the largest financial institution in america, stated it was winding down there, too.
American and different Western banks largely stepped again from Russia in recent times, sustaining solely restricted operations to serve corporations there, after President Vladimir V. Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 prompted financial penalties from Western nations.
Citigroup had $9.8 billion of publicity to Russia on the finish of 2021, together with company and shopper loans and native authorities debt securities, in response to a regulatory filing.
