cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41276209

Austria’s central bank will not take enforcement action against Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) over allegations that a Russian subsidiary breached EU sanctions, documents published by the Austrian Ministry of Finance in early August have confirmed.

In a letter addressed to the President of Austria and responding to a parliamentary inquiry, Finance Minister Dr. Markus Marterbauer publicly confirmed that the Austrian National Bank (OeNB), the authority responsible for sanctions enforcement in Austria, had “investigated” the investment activities of Raiffeisen Management Company (formerly Raiffeisen Capital), a Russia-domiciled asset manager owned by RBI’s Russian subsidiary bank, and concluded that there was “no further need for action” against RBI.

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RBI’s Russian operations, which turned a higher profit than all other Western banks in Russia put together in 2024, came under renewed public scrutiny in March following an investigation by BankTrack and B4Ukraine.(1) The investigation revealed that RBI’s Russian asset manager had purchased bonds issued by Russia’s Ministry of Finance in late 2024, placing its parent company at risk of breaching EU sanctions-related prohibitions on Russian sovereign debt.(2) RBI has since repeatedly declined to provide detailed information on Raiffeisen Management Company’s activities to journalists, and all financial filings have been removed from the subsidiary’s website.

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Though Marterbauer’s letter indicates that the OeNB has declined to take further action against RBI, the absence of a justification for the decision leaves important questions unresolved as to whether RBI indeed made the requisite efforts at preventing its subsidiary from undermining EU sanctions legislation and whether the bank has taken steps to address and rectify these activities.

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