New York-based Citigroup has indicated that it would exit from all its operations in Russia, thus being the latest Wall Street firm to pull out of the country following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The New York-based group in April 2021 had already announced plans to get rid of its retail banking business in Russia and on Monday said it is now expanding those efforts to include its corporate bank.
“We have now decided to expand the scope of that exit process to include other lines of business and continue to reduce our remaining operations and exposure,” Edward Skyler, Citi’s executive vice-president for global public affairs, said in a blog post.
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“Due to the nature of banking and financial services operations, this decision will take time to execute,” the bank added.
The bank said it had also decided “to stop soliciting any new business or clients to Russia.
At the end of 2020, Citi in Russia had about 3,000 corporate clients, 500,000 consumer clients and roughly 3,000 employees.
Citi disclosed last month that it had almost $10bn worth of exposure to Russia through loans, government debt and other assets, partly held through its retail bank, giving it more direct exposure than US banking rivals.
Goldman Sachs said last week it was “winding down” its business in Russia while JPMorgan Chase said last week it had “been actively unwinding Russian business”.
