Putin banned owners from unfriendly countries from selling shares of Russian banks until the end of the year
The list of domestic banks to which this ban will apply must be prepared by the Government of the Russian Federation and the Central Bank of Russia within 10 days
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree until the end of this year blocking transactions with shares of Russian banks made by persons from countries included in the list of unfriendly. The document was published on Friday on the official Internet portal of legal information. The list of domestic banks to which this ban will apply must be prepared by the Government of the Russian Federation and the Central Bank of Russia within 10 days.
Meanwhile, the decree states that the head of state will be able to authorize the sale of shares by special decision in each individual case. In addition, again, by decision of the President of the Russian Federation, the validity of the restriction on transactions can also be extended.
Last month, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that the Russian leadership did not intend to allow the sale of Russian assets by foreign banks due to sanctions restrictions imposed on Russian banks abroad.
In turn, the head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said that decisions on transactions with shares of Russian banks would be made individually, the government commission would take into account the attitude towards Russian banks in the countries from which they want to conduct them.
At the moment, several large foreign banks operating in countries that have imposed sanctions restrictions against the Russian Federation would like to sell Russian subsidiaries. Thus, plans to get rid of assets in Russia were announced by the Italian group UniCredit, the American Citigroup, and the British HSBC. The latter, according to some information, signed an agreement on the sale of the Russian subsidiary to Expobank, but the deal has not yet received approval from either the Central Bank of Russia or the Cabinet of Ministers.
