VIENNA, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is still interested in the Russian market and will not wrap up its business in Russia despite Western sanctions on the country, the bank’s CEO Karl Sevelda said at a meeting with the Austrian-Russian Friendship Society.
“We as Raiffeisen Russia are staying in Russia, remaining loyal to our clients and we think that Russia represents an attractive banking market, though the conditions are getting worse,” Sevelda said Thursday.
“In the short-term period, the sanctions have not affected banking sector, but in the mid-run they will, because the cost of refinancing will increase,” the RBI head added. He also pointed out that many investors are refraining from making any long-term decisions.
Over the past few months, the United States and the EU have imposed a series of economic sanctions against Russia over its stance on the Ukrainian crisis. The latest round of sanctions, introduced late July, included restrictions on Russian banking and oil sector. Early August Moscow responded by banning the import of certain food products from the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway.
In August, Sevelda claimed that RBI’s Russian business was not significantly impacted by Western sanctions.
Raiffeisen Bank International mainly operates in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. The bank’s Russian subsidiary Raiffeisenbank accounted for 74 percent of the bank’s pretax profit in 2013, The New York Times reported, citing Fitch Ratings.
Raiffeisenbank was also ranked 12th among Russian banks with the largest net assets as of August 2014, according to the Banki.ru web portal.
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