Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is delaying plans to leave Russia hoping that the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine will end before the bank will have to cave in to sanctions pressure and scrap its presence in the country, Reuters reported citing unnamed sources.

As covered in detail by bne IntelliNews, RBI came under heavy regulatory pressure to come up with an exit plan from Russia, the country where it made 60% of its net profit last year.

RBI has scaled down its Russian business and is reportedly considering the sale of the business as a whole, or the splitting off of the Russian business into a separate entity.

However, both Austrian officials and RBI itself “are stepping up their defence of RBI in Europe and Washington, saying that it has been unfairly singled out”, Reuters wrote citing two people with knowledge of government thinking.

Several officials who spoke to Reuters said they were “reluctant to completely sever decades-old ties with Russia, thinking it will still be possible to restore relations”. RBI has around 2,600 corporate customers, 4mn local account holders and 10,000 staff in Russia.

In the meantime, RBI is dragging its feet with submitting the spin-off plan to the European Central Bank (ECB), making the September deadline for Russia exit unlikely, according to Reuters. Austrian central bank Governor Robert Holzmann raised concerns over pressure on the bank with ECB President Christine Lagarde, one person with knowledge of those discussions told Reuters.

In addition, the recent private military company Wagner mutiny has shaken Russian elites and makes it less likely to find a buyer for a major banking asset in the short term.

As for the pressure coming from the US Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to hang over data on Russian transactions, Austria's finance minister, Magnus Brunner, reportedly spoke with the top US Treasury sanctions official, Brian Nelson, underscoring co-operation, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.