The U.S. is threatening Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) with exclusion from the dollar financial system if it continues its operations in the russian federation.
It was reported by the Reuters agency.
The agency writes that for at least four months, American envoys have increasingly warned Raiffeisen Bank International about the need to abandon a deal that they believe involved ties to one of russia's most powerful oligarchs.
In May of this year, Washington's patience snapped. It is known that on May 8, Washington in a written ultimatum, which it sent to its curator, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the government of Austria.
The U.S. threatened to limit Raiffeisen Bank's access to the dollar, which one person who saw the letter said was a potential death sentence for russia's biggest Western lender.
A few hours after receiving this letter, Raiffeisen Bank canceled a deal to buy a stake in the Austrian construction company Strabag, which belonged to russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, who is under sanctions.
Now, nearly two months later, pressure on the bank to loosen its ties to russia is mounting from both Washington and the ECB, three of the agency's sources said.
The agency spoke to more than a dozen people, including senior officials involved in discussions with U.S., Austrian and European regulators, as well as sources directly familiar with the bank's strategy.
The talks showed that Raiffeisen Bank was still under immediate international pressure to back away from russia — even though it had halted the deal to buy a stake in Strabag.
They also showed that Raiffeisen Bank ignored warnings from European regulators more than a year ago that the bank was playing a risky game with Washington over its business in russia.
Washington's threat to impose sanctions on Raiffeisen Bank has not been lifted, and it continues to closely monitor the bank, its relations with russia and possible violations of sanctions.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in March 2023, the banking group Raiffeisen Bank International announced its intention to engage in the sale or separation of its russian business.
Recall that in March of this year, the Reuters agency reported with reference to its own sources that the U.S. urged Raiffeisen Bank not to cooperate with the russian federation.
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