Russia’s central bank has decided to put on hold the plans to sell Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation, which is recognised as an important bank by the country’s authorities
The Bank of Russia said it will inform when it decides to resume the preparations for the sale of the lender.
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The announcement comes amid the rising geopolitical tensions after Russia decided to invade Ukraine last month.
In retaliation, the West has imposed unprecedented sanctions targeting financial entities and Russian elites.
In 2017, Bank Otkritie was rescued by the central bank after it crashed due to bad debt and the Bank of Russia has been looking to divest its stake via an IPO or sale.
Notably, Bank Otkritie is among those being targeted by sanctions, which includes cutting it off SWIFT, a global payment messaging system for banks.
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By GlobalDataIn January this year, Italian banking group UniCredit expressed interest in buying Otkritie but backed off later citing tensions over Ukraine.
Otkritie is said to operate over 500 branches across Russia and caters to retail, SME, corporate and private customers.
To dampen the impact of economic sanctions, the Bank of Russia has taken several steps including raising the key interest rate to 20% per annum, easing reserve requirements for banks, and injecting billions of dollars into the banking system.
The most recent step taken by the Russian central bank is to pause stock market trading on the Moscow Exchange till 18 March 2022.
