Citibank, the Russian branch of the U.S. banking organization Citigroup, is set to cease its remaining operations in Russia starting November 1, according to a report by Reuters on Friday.
As one of the largest Western financial institutions in the Russian market, the bank announced that it would halt interest payments and terminate support for all savings and deposit accounts on this date. Clients have been urged to transfer their remaining balances to alternative banks as soon as possible.
Earlier, Citigroup had already suspended services related to debit cards, money transfers, cash withdrawals from terminals, and transactions through the Central Bank’s Faster Payments System in 2024. It also closed its final retail outlet in Russia, situated near the Paveletskaya metro station in Moscow, in November of the same year.
The decision to shut down its Russian consumer operations was initially made in 2021, but Citigroup decided to exit entirely following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since early 2022, the bank’s lending portfolio has diminished by 98%, and deposits from both individual and corporate clients have plummeted between 90 and 150 times.
Other European banks are also scaling back their operations. Raiffeisen Bank International from Austria, the largest Western bank still active in Russia, ceased processing the majority of cross-border transactions last August.
On Wednesday, Italy’s UniCredit announced it would no longer accept new corporate clients in Russia and intended to increase account servicing fees by up to ten times.
Both banks are facing pressure from the European Central Bank to greatly reduce their Russian investments.
French bank Societe Generale, Dutch bank ING, and U.S. bank Goldman Sachs have successfully divested their Russian subsidiaries following the invasion of Ukraine, whereas Raiffeisen has encountered challenges.
Recently, Reuters reported that the Kremlin has blocked Raiffeisenbank’s efforts to sell its Russian unit to maintain financial ties with Europe, which continues to pay Russia several billion euros annually for oil and gas.
