Megabank Citigroup has announced that it will wind down commercial and consumer operations in Russia, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The paper reported that the banking giant will incur about $170 million in charges over the next 18 months as it pulls out.
There had been media reports in May noting Citigroup was exploring whether it ight be able to swap assets with Russian banks to avoid sizable write-downs which would be incurred if it attempted to entirely quit the sanctions-laden country. There were reportedly multiple talks ongoing with different Russian banking interests to sell its consumer operations and part out its consumer divisions, but now it appears all negotiations failed, and will not be resuming.
As of June 30th, Citigroup’s Russian exposure was $8.4 billion.
Citi becomes the latest of many companies, from McDonalds, to H&M, to Unilever, which have elected to pull out of Russia due to the Western sanctions imposed after the military actions ongoing in Ukraine.
The Daily Financial Trends
