Sberbank in talks with National Bank of Ukraine to leave market

MOSCOW, Aug 23 (PRIME) -- Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank continues negotiations with the National Bank of Ukraine to quit the country’s market, Senior Vice President Alexander Vedyakhin said in a conference call on Wednesday.

“We continue negotiations with our partners and the regulator to find ways to leave Ukraine’s market. In this regard, we see the level of reserves (for Ukraine-based assets) optimal,” he said.

On March 23, Kiev introduced sanctions against local units of Sberbank and VTB Bank, and subsidiaries of the two banks VS Bank and BM Bank, respectively, as well as against Vnesheconombank’s Prominvestbank. The sanctions prohibit any financial operations in favor of affiliated entities, including parent companies.

Sberbank said it had sold the Ukrainian affiliate to a consortium of Latvia’s Norvik Banka and a Belarusian private company, and expected the deal to be closed until the end of June. But on July 28, Ukraine’s central bank rejected a bid of the consortium of businessmen Said Gutseriyev and Grigory Guselnikov.

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