RUSSIA: Russia's SMP Bank, co-owned by sanctions-hit Rotenberg brothers, says it doesn't need financial support but admits sanctions affected the bank's work

Record ID: 565178

  • Title: RUSSIA: Russia's SMP Bank, co-owned by sanctions-hit Rotenberg brothers, says it doesn't need financial support but admits sanctions affected the bank's work
  • Date: 24th March 2014
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MARCH 24, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KREMLIN PEOPLE ON STREET VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF SMP BANK HIT BY U.S. SANCTIONS SMP BANK CEO DMITRY KALANTYRSKY ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SMP BANK CEO, DMITRY KALANTYRSKY, SAYING: "How can people react to sanctions that were imposed on them for no apparent reason? Obviously, you wouldn't see happiness upon their faces. Besides, it was unfortunate that these sanctions affected the work of our bank." JOURNALIST LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SMP BANK CEO, DMITRY KALANTYRSKY, SAYING: "Our shareholders guaranteed, if necessary, their financial support. Bless God we didn't need it, as well as we didn't need the support of the central bank." EXTERIOR OF RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK RUSSIAN FLAG WAVING VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON MOSCOW STREET EXTERIOR OF SBERBANK HEADQUARTERS SBERBANK SIGN ON WALL SBERBANK CEO GERMAN GREF AT PRESS BRIEFING JOURNALIST WRITING (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SBERBANK CEO, GERMAN GREF, SAYING: "The current situation has a negative effect on the economic situation around the world: in Russia, in Europe, everywhere. It is clear that when those kind of serious political mishaps - that lead to grave economic consequences as we see in Ukraine - happen, this affects countries all around." HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SBERBANK CEO, GERMAN GREF, SAYING: "We see that in the first two months of this year capital outflows were at 35 billion dollars. So it is obvious that the full-year outflows will be significantly higher than forecast, more than 55 billion dollars a year in previous years. Everything depends on what scenario we will see, on how the situation develops. If capital outflows reach 100 billion dollars, the economic growth will likely hit zero." VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF SBERBANK BRANCH PEOPLE ON STREET
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: International Relations,Finance
  • Reuters ID: LVA3T17YBA5Z7U79GPZ6UV2US2M5
  • Story Text: Russian bank SMP, co-owned by sanctions-hit Rotenberg brothers, said on Monday (March 24) that it did not require any financial support, but admitted a negative impact of the U.S. punitive measures on its work.
    Washington imposed sanctions on Thursday (March 20) against 20 Russians close to President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's involvement in the Ukraine crisis, including Boris Rotenberg and his older brother Arkady, the co-owners of SMP Bank.
    SMP CEO Dmitry Kalantyrsky told a news conference that an estimated 4 billion roubles ($110 million) had been withdrawn by individuals and 5 billion roubles ($138 million) by organisations.
    On Friday (March 21), SMP said Visa and MasterCard had stopped providing services for payment transactions for its clients. On Sunday (March 23) service had resumed, it said.
    Kalantyrsky said the stoppage of services had been an over-zealous reaction because sanctions were imposed on the shareholders, not the bank.

    "How can people react to sanctions that were imposed on them for no apparent reason? Obviously, you wouldn't see happiness upon their faces. Besides, it was unfortunate that these sanctions affected the work of our bank," he said.

    "Our shareholders guaranteed, if necessary, their financial support. Bless God we didn't need it, as well as we didn't need the support of the central bank," he added.
    St. Petersburg-based Bank Rossiya, which was sanctioned alongside its chairman and largest shareholder Yuri Kovalchuk, said separately in a statement it had asked its clients to refrain from making foreign currency payments to accounts at the bank due to the U.S. sanctions.
    The CEO of Russia's largest bank Sberbank said on Monday that the Ukrainian crisis had a negative effect on the economic situation around the world.

    "The current situation has a negative effect on the economic situation around the world: in Russia, in Europe, everywhere. It is clear that when those kind of serious political mishaps - that lead to grave economic consequences as we see in Ukraine - happen, this affects countries all around," Sberbank's CEO German Gref said.
    He added that Russia was at risk of recession and if capital outflows would increase to $100 billion, its economic growth is likely to stall.

    "We see that in the first two months of this year capital outflows were at 35 billion dollars. So it is obvious that the full-year outflows will be significantly higher than forecast, more than 55 billion dollars a year in previous years. Everything depends on what scenario we will see, on how the situation develops. If capital outflows reach 100 billion dollars, the economic growth will likely hit zero," Gref said.
    German Gref, however, said that Sberbank is not reviewing its business plan in the light of the risk of recession.
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