By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters – The European financial crisis has been triggered by the escalating severity of sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Sberbank Russia’s most important lender is facing financial ruin, according to the European Central Bank. This warning came Monday after a ran on deposits that was triggered by Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.

Western countries have decided to suspend Russia’s financial sector. To stop the use of its foreign reserves, they will target Russia’s central bank.

These moves are designed to weaken Russia’s economic resilience and expose its economy to Western bank sanctions.

According to data from the Bank of International Settlements, the biggest Russian exposure in Europe is held by French and Italian banks, which had a little over $25 billion at the end of September. Austrian banks, however, have $17.5 billion.

Comparatively, the U.S. bank’s exposure to $14.7 billion is

What banks are affected by the crisis?

RAIFFEISEN BANK INTERNATIONAL

Russian bank of the Austrian lender is ranked as ninth in loans. It has an overall asset of 15.8 billion euro and employs approximately 8,700 people to service more than 4.5million customers. 18.% of the consolidated equity is represented by its equity of 2.4 Billion Euros.

It stated that the Russian exposure of Austrian banks totalled 22.85 trillion euros. More than half was related to the private corporate sector.

Russia’s central banking accounts for 8%, Russian sovereign entities account for 4%, Russian banks for 2.2%.

This total figure is 11.5% of the group’s overall 11.6 billion euro in customer loans. Only 80% of loans are made in Russian rubles, and foreign currency lending is reserved for those who have a match forex income.

Cross-border exposure to Russia amounts to 1.6 billion, with no parent funding coming from Vienna. Raiffeisen holds loans of 2.2 million euros to Ukrainian customers.

Provisions against loss cover 64.3% RBI’s Russia-related impaired exposures.

Johann Strobl from Raiffeisen Bank International, the chief executive of Raiffeisen Bank International, stated to Reuters that RBI’s Russian affiliate “had a very solid liquidity position (and) was recording inflows.”

SOCIETE GENERAL

Rosbank is a Russian-owned unit of French Bank. It had an overall exposure of 18 billion euro to Russia as of December 31, 2013, or 1.7% of its total.

It includes all on- and offbalance sheet items. (For example, a credit card line that is not yet tapped). This risk disclosure definition is known as exposure at default.

SogGen has Russian exposure at 39% to corporate and 36% for retail. For 21% of the total, sovereign entities are responsible and financial institutions for 4%.

Last year, actual loans increased 13.3% to reach 10.5 billion euro.

Societe Generale, (OTC) began doing business in Russia 1872, then fled the country in 1917. This year was the Bolshevik Revolution. Societe Generale returned to Russia in 1973. There are 1.5 million of its local clients.

Russian retail, which received an average 1.05 million euro of capital last year, brought in 115m euros net income in 2021. That’s up from 37 million in 2020. Net income for SG Russia in 2021 was 152 millions euros, compared to 76million in 2020.

The bank stated that it had taken steps to comply with the sanctions placed against Russia, and that Rosbank in Russia continued to be operated in “safety”.

UNICREDIT

Italy’s sole lender, UniCredit Russia, is ranked as Russia’s fourteenth-largest bank. UniCredit Russia owns 3.7% of its total equity, which is 2.3 billion Euros.

UniCredit was exposed to default in Russia at 14.2 billion Euros based on Pillar 3 risk disclosure requirements as of mid-2021.

Around 8 billion euros of the total amount are Russian-issued loans, which were locally funded. The rest includes items off the balance sheet and loans that have been granted cross-borderly by UniCredit SpA to large corporations outside Russia.

UniCredit reported last week that the Russian franchise represented only about 3% in group revenues. Provisioned coverage covered 84% non-performing exposures.

INTESA SANPAOLO

Rival Italian Heavyweight Intesa Sanpaolo, (OTC) is active in Russia. It has financed large investment projects like the ‘Blue Stream’ gas pipeline and the sale a share in Rosneft oil producer.

At the close of 2021 Intesa had a loan exposure of 5.57 billion Euros to Russia, which is 1.1% of its total.

The assets of its subsidiaries in Russia, Ukraine, and Germany amount to just 0.1% each. 

Intesa is Italy’s largest bank and handles over half the commercial transactions between both countries.

ING

Out of more than 600 billion euro in total loans, the Dutch bank holds approximately 4.5 billion Euros in unpaid Russian client loans and 600 Million Euros with Ukrainian clients.

Most of the loans in these cases are in dollars and euros, but project finance or collateralised loans make up the majority. In many cases, loans and collateral come from countries other than Russia and Ukraine.

ING stated that many sanctions have been in effect against Russia since 2014