European banks paid 800 million euros in taxes in Russia last year / Article

The seven largest European banks in Russia by assets – “Raiffeisen Bank International” (it paid 464 million euros in taxes), “UniCredit”, ING, “Commerzbank”, “Deutsche Bank”, “Intesa Sanpaolo” and OTP – report that their total profit exceeded three billion dollars in 2023. This is three times more than in 2021.

The taxes paid by the banks are about 0.4% of all revenues not related to energy related to the Russian budget for 2024, the newspaper reports.

“Financial Times” calls it an example of how foreign companies help the Kremlin to maintain financial stability in wartime, despite sanctions imposed by Western countries.

The increase in profits of European banks is partly explained by funds that they cannot take out of the country due to restrictions imposed by Russia, introduced after the start of full-scale hostilities in Ukraine, the newspaper says.

“We can’t do anything with deposits in Russia other than keep them in the central bank. That’s why, as interest rates rose, so did our profits,” the “Financial Times” quoted the head of an unnamed European bank with a branch in Russia.

In addition, the profits of European banks have increased due to sanctions that denied their Russian competitors access to the international payment information transfer system SWIFT. Therefore, Western banks have become more attractive in Russia, writes “Financial Times”.

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