HSBC has sold part of its Russian retail banking business to
Citibank for around $10.7m.
The divestment of the Russian retail banking business is part of
HSBC’s new strategy to reduce in costs by fine-tuning and
focusing its group retail banking business to markets it identified
as profitable.
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The sale included the retail loan and mortgage portfolios at
four branches.
The Russian retail banking market proved too complicated for the
bank, whose retreat followed that of
Barclays Bank in mid-February.
The Russian retail banking sector is dominated by domestic
state-owned banks, which control the majority of assets in the
market.
HSBC is re-jigging its retail banking focus on profitable
markets, including Turkey, Brazil and Mexico, but in Russia, it
focus on commercial and investment banking instead.
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By GlobalDataThe deal is expected to close in the third quarter and HSBC
customers will be referred to Citibank upon their consent.
Unlike Barclays and HSBC,
Citi identified Russia as part of its core retail banking
portfolio, a market it has been operating in since 1993.
Barclays said in February that it would recoil its retail and
commercial banking operations in Russia less than three years after
it paid $745m to acquire 32-branch-strong Expobank.
