Business is shutting down
Deutsche Bank rejects new Russian customers
03/12/2022, 00:51
Deutsche Bank’s decision to continue doing business in Russia despite the war in Ukraine has met with heavy criticism. Now the money house gives in and limits its activities there. Commerzbank is also involved.
After severe criticism, Deutsche Bank is now shutting down its business in Russia because of the Ukraine war. Deutsche Bank has substantially reduced its commitment and presence in Russia since 2014, the money house announced in the evening. “Like some of our international competitors, we are in the process of ramping down our remaining business in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements.”
At the same time, the financial institution is helping its existing non-Russian international clients to scale back their business operations in the country. “We are no longer doing new business in Russia,” the bank added. Shortly therefollowing, Commerzbank also announced that it would stop its new business in Russia. “We have stopped new business in Russia, we are only processing existing transactions,” said a spokeswoman for the money house.
Against the background of the Ukraine war, Deutsche Bank was criticized for remaining in Russia. The American investor Bill Browder, who has been working to uncover corruption in Russia for years, told the Archyde.com news agency that Deutsche Bank’s remaining in Russia is at odds with the international business community and will lead to backlash, damage to reputation and business strains in the West.
Deutsche Bank recently described its involvement in Russia as very limited. The institute has the risks under control, CFO James von Moltke said on Thursday. The money house put the gross credit exposure in relation to Russia at 1.4 billion euros. According to a presentation by the bank, there are also additional risks amounting to 1.5 billion euros, which are largely covered by export guarantees.
