AGI – It is precisely the Italian banks, together with the French ones, and then the Austrian ones, that are among the most exposed to Russia among the financial institutions in Europe. This is what emerges from a research by Credit Suisse, which processed data from the Bri, the Bank for International Settlements, dating back to June 2021.
For Italian and French institutions, the exposure amounts to over 30 billion dollars, approximately 26.5 billion eurosfor the Austrians it is around 22-23 billion dollars.
With regard to individual institutions, the analysis shows that the highest exposure is that of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International with a share of revenues of 20% made in Russia and with an amount of loans of 10.5 billion, also considering Ukraine. .
The Austrian bank precedes Societè Generale, which has a 4% share of revenues in Russia with 8.7 billion in loans.
The third bank by exposure is Unicredit, present in Russia since 2005 after the merger with Hvb which had its own subsidiary in the country. The bank currently has around 2 million retail customers and around 30,000 corporate customers, with a network of 72 branches that provide around 8 billion euros in loans.
In 2021, the Russian subsidiary earned the Unicredit group about 180 million in profits, a small part of the total 3.9 billion; it accounts for approximately 3% of the interest margin and 3% of the allocated capital.
Unicredit had recently shown interest in the privatization of Otkritie Bank, a private bank subject to a public bailout and then put back on the market. A company with 477 branches with 44 billion assets.
The rumors about Otkritie had cost Unicredit a sharp drop on the stock exchange, before the turnaround sanctioned by the words of CEO Andrea Orcel: “we withdrew due to geopolitical risks”, he explained, referring precisely to the Ukrainian affair and the possibility of sanctions.
“We evaluated whether to buy a controlling stake in the Otkritie stock exchange, to integrate it with our Russian bank, becoming the main shareholders of a larger pole – he said – but the network and the synergies were potentially greater than the risks”.
Intesa Sanpaolo’s activity in Russia is also very intense, managing more than half of the commercial operations with Italy, carries out most of the Italian investment operations in Russia and Russian investments in Italy, and is an important investor and partner in many Russian, national and international projects. Banca Intesa Russia has 28 branches and 976 employees, with assets of around € 1 billion.
Recently the CEO of Intesa, Carlo Messina, about the Ukrainian events had said during a conference call: “We do not do geopolitics, we respect the rules that exist at EU and international level but we do the bank, in the interest of our customers and we will also in Russia. We will do it with the rules that will exist from time to time, but I do not see what problems there can be for us in Russia which, among other things, is also profitable for us “.
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