US threatens Raiffeisen Bank with sanctions over Russian ties
9 March 2024 15:05
According to euobserver.com, the United States has threatened Austrian bank Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) with sanctions for its dealings in Russia. The US Treasury Department issued a warning to the Austrian RBI that supporting the Russian military further could result in being "cut off from the American financial system".
The United States sets conditions for banks
A senior representative from the Treasury Department, Anna Morris, travelled to Vienna for discussions. On Thursday and Friday, she held meetings with the Austrian government and RBI’s top management.
The bank declined to comment to euobserver.com, stating it "does not publicly discuss conversations with government officials".
The Ukrainian National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NACP) previously labelled RBI as international "war sponsors." On Friday, a spokesperson for the Austrian bank expressed RBI's desire to continue talks with NACP, aiming to be removed from this list.
Raiffeisen's RBRU was involved in the Russian scheme of credit holidays for Russian draftees, introduced by the Russian Federation. In answering to euobserver.com’s query, the bank stated it must abide by Russian law.
The list of shame: European banks operating in Russia
RBI ranks among the eight leading European banks in Russia. According to euobserver.com, the other banks include: Dutch lender ING, German Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, Hungarian OTP Bank, Italian Intesa SanPaolo and UniCredit, and Swedish SEB.
OTP Bank, blacklisted in Ukraine as a war sponsor, saw its profits from Russia soar by 125% in 2023. euobserver.com reports that OTP Bank manages 82 branches across Russia, employs 2,018 people and also participated in the Russian program of credit holidays for draftees.
The US Treasury Department has not commented on whether Morris might visit OTP Bank in Budapest in the future. OTP Bank also did not reply to enquiries from the service.
