Italian lender Unicredit more than doubled its profit year on year in 1Q24 in Russia to €213mn in 1Q24, according to Kommersant daily. Unicredit’s net interest income fell by 5.9% to €200mn and net fee and commission income by 4.7% to €44mn, with trading income up 2.4-fold to €34mn in 1Q24.
As followed by bne IntelliNews, the European Central Bank is expected to step up pressure on foreign banks to exit Russia, with a binding order for UniCredit and Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) to cut back their business in the country.
The analysts surveyed by Kommersant note Unicredit’s and RBI’s significant role in the market of international settlements, even if they still largely depend on the actions of foreign correspondent banks.
At the same time Unicredit is cutting its loan portfolio faster than RBI. The Italian bank’s loan book in 1Q24 almost halved to €2.9bn, while RBI's portfolio in Russia shrank by 28.2% to €5.8bn over the same quarter.
UniCredit Russia reported pre-tax profit of €890mn euros in 2023, about 7.7% of the group's total. The pre-tax profit jumped to €210mn in pre-invasion 2021. To remind, in 2022 both RBI and UniCredit were top earners among the foreign banks that maintained activities in Russia.
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