Russian central bank imposes curbs on Intesa, UniCredit units – Bloomberg

The Russian central bank is implementing limits for the units of Italian banks UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA in the country, Bloomberg News reported May 27, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The regulator told the banks in a letter that for a year, beginning May 25, Italian account holders cannot withdraw money from the Russian units without management permission. They also cannot open new accounts, according to the report. In addition, there are reportedly limits on the size of money transfers for accounts with deposits of more than €100,000 or its equivalent in other currencies.

In early March, UniCredit said its direct exposure to its Russian business, net of foreign exchange hedges, was about €1.9 billion. At the bank's first-quarter earnings call, CEO Andrea Orcel said it can absorb any possible extreme spillover effects due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. UniCredit is also reportedly in negotiations to sell its Russian unit.

Meanwhile, Intesa Sanpaolo said its cross-border on-balance credit exposure to Russia amounted to €3.9 billion.

UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo declined to comment to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Russian central bank had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publishing.