American CitiBank, one of the largest Western banks in Russia and one of the country’s 20 largest banks by assets, is winding down its operations in Russia.
According to information obtained by Frank Media from CitiBank, the bank’s subsidiary in Russia will close its last retail branch on 15 November.
The branch near the Paveletskaya metro station in the capital Moscow will also close within two months. Citibank advised its customers to “consider other options for making deposits and other transactions”.
All Citibank debit cards will be invalid from 20 September, and money transfers, ATM cash withdrawals and QR code purchases, including through the Central Bank’s Faster Payment System, will be stopped from 25 September.
Citigroup had planned to sell its retail operations in Russia in early 2021, but decided to close them completely following the military intervention in Ukraine.
The volume of loans granted by the bank since the beginning of 2022 has decreased by 98 per cent to 2.4 billion roubles. Of the 154 billion roubles in deposits from individual clients, only 1 billion roubles remained, and the funds held in commercial accounts fell more than 90 times, from 346 billion roubles to 3.8 billion roubles.
Following Citi’s lead, European banks began to close their operations in Russia. Raiffeisenbank, one of the largest, stopped foreign transfers for most of its clients at the end of August.
The total assets of foreign banks in the country at the beginning of this year will be only $66 billion. This is almost half the pre-war level of 2021 ($119 billion) and less than a quarter of the record level of 2012 ($239 billion).
