The European Central Bank plans to order the Italian financial group UniCredit to reduce its presence in Russia. Reuters writes about this.
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According to the agency’s interlocutors, the requirements for the second largest European bank in Russia will be similar to those that the ECB imposes on the Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).
In particular, the ECB intends to send UniCredit a legally binding order, meaning a new level of pressure to reduce the business of the Italian bank in Russia. This is the penultimate step before the ECB can impose tough sanctions, such as fines.
The ECB's official warning gives UniCredit the last opportunity to prevent such a procedure, one of the agency's interlocutors said.
Two years after of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European regulators are increasing pressure on banks in the EU as the conflict continues with no signs of abating.
However, the region's two large financial groups, RBI and UniCredit, continue to do business in Russia, attracting scrutiny attention from the US authorities, Reuters sources indicate.