UPDATE: CEO: Sberbank to quit some EU states, keep Turkish unit

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MOSCOW/ISTANBUL, Sep 22 (PRIME) -- Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank plans to quit several countries of Europe due to sanctions but will keep its business in Turkish, CEO German Gref told reporters on Friday.

“We are optimizing our activities in Europe at the moment, we are going to quit some countries, will optimize our headquarters, and in general, it is extremely hard to operate under sanctions in Europe,” Gref told channel Rossiya 24.

“It is hard to speak about prospects so far, we are doing business and a situation when we buy or sell a part of the business can occur at any moment. But we have no plans now to sell our business in Turkey,” Gref said.

He also said that the bank plans to start accepting Mir cards of Russia’s National Payment Cards System (NPCS) in Turkey via its affiliate DenizBank from 2018.

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