European banks have been cautioned to prepare themselves for possible sanctions against Russia should it invade Ukraine.
- The European Central Bank said eurozone lenders should prepare for the sanctions, and present their plans for several scenarios, such as the possible suspension of the access of Russian banks to the Swift international payment system.
- The ECB asked banks to submit their own assessments and contingency plans and request information on Deutsche Bank and ING’s Russian and Ukrainian exposure as the biggest banks in Germany and the Netherlands.
- Among the banks seen to be impacted are lenders with large Russian exposure such as US’ Citi, France’s Société Générale, Austria’s Raiffeisen and Italy’s UniCredit.
- International lenders have some $121 billion in assets owned by Russian-based firms, and there is some $128 billion in loan and deposit funding from Russian firms to foreign banks.
VGK is down 0.43% and C down 0.17% premarket; SCGLY closed up 0.41% and UUNCRY closed up 1.21%; and RBI.VI up 0.41%.
Source: FT
