Sberbank still considering selling its Ukraine business – First Deputy Managing Director – Business & Economy

ST. PETERSBURG, June 9. / TASS /. Sberbank still intends to sell its Ukrainian business and continues to look for an opportunity to do so, the bank’s first deputy managing director, Lev Khasis, told TASS in an interview on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg (SPIEF).

“We have been trying for many years to find an opportunity to leave the Ukrainian market, and at the same time we fully comply with all the requirements of Ukrainian regulators. Sberbank of Ukraine is perhaps one of the most stable banks existing in Ukraine as a whole. However, so far we have not been able to get regulatory clearances to exit the market, and if we manage to do it all at once, we would gladly take this opportunity. We want to exit the market by selling our business, not we find ourselves in a situation where they expropriate it from us like a gangster. We have significant funds there – it’s our shareholders’ money, ”Khasis said.

Ukraine’s Sberbank has been subject to sanctions since March 2017, when Kiev banned it from any financial transaction in favor of people associated with it, in particular parent entities. Since then, Sberbank has been trying to sell its business in this country, but the National Bank of Ukraine refuses to make a deal.