In the past Russia has been a major revenue driver for many European banks, a position that became threatened as the country descended into recession in late 2014. As The Banker discussed last December, foreign banking franchises in the country often delivered disproportionately high profits, given their share of the parent’s assets. The half-year results for the largest foreign-owned lenders in the country show this is still the case, with UniCredit, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and Nordea all churning out high profits so far (see chart one).
Nordea and RBI weathered the downturn exceptionally well, as their year-on-year net profits in rouble terms increased by 42% and 15%, respectively in the first six months of the year.
