Russian Alfa-Bank to stop servicing defense companies due to Western sanctions
The first deputy chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank Oleg Sysuev told Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio that the bank has notified the Russian defense companies that they will not be providing them with service because of Western sanctions.
Sysuev clarified that the bank is not going to break off relations with defense companies at once. “We are trying to minimize the risks,” he explained.
On December 29, Forbes published an interview with the founder of Alfa-Group, Mikhail Fridman. During the interview, the businessman said that the state of Russian banks is influenced by Western sanctions. “Alfa-Bank, for example, served a large number of defense companies. Now this is prohibited by sanctions,” he then said. At the same time, Fridman specified that defense companies were mainly financed by the state. “I do not remember problems in the bank related to sanctions,” he said.
In January 2015, Alfa-Bank announced the closure of its office in New York due to sanctions imposed against Russia. This was explained by a ban on U.S. companies to invest in Russian stocks.
“If the situation changes, we can always restore our presence on the American continent. The licensing process is not long,” said the representative of Alfa-Bank, Leonid Ignat, to RBK.