MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. The amount of funds of western investment banks and companies frozen in Russia totals at least $17 bln, the Izvestia newspaper wrote with reference to annual and quarterly reports of 12 largest investment banks and firms. This involves JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, State Street Corporation, Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, Citi Group, though State Street Corporation and HSBC provided no information about investments in Russia in their files.
The funds were frozen as the Bank of Russia banned non-residents earlier from selling Russian securities and withdrawing funds, the paper said.
According to Deutsche Bank’s financials, Russia is among countries with the highest credit exposure (amount of loans) for the German bank, with risk totaling 3.6 bln euro (or $3.87 bln). The country exposure of Citi Group amounted to $5.4 bln in 2021, according to the publication.
Meanwhile, the Swiss bank Credit Suisse said in its report that as of the end of last year net credit risk in Russia equaled 0.8 bln Swiss francs ($0.832 bln). Goldman Sachs estimates its credit risk at $650 mln, while its market risk (amount of investment) is estimated at another $414 mln. JPMorgan Chase risks losing $1 bln invested in the Russian Federation. UBS corporation’s risk exposure went down to $0.4 bln as of March 31, 2022, whereas loan loss provisions of Bank of America total $165 mln, Izvestia said.
Net assets of the American fund Russia ETF invested in Russia stand at $0.586 bln, according to BlackRock’s annual report. The total amount of funds invested in Russia by the US' Morgan Stanley is estimated at $120 bln, the newspaper added.
It was reported on May 25 that the European Union’s member states had frozen the assets of the Bank of Russia worth 23 bln euro, which is far less than expected earlier.