Western Banks Pay Over $850Mln in Taxes in Russia in 2023 - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The largest European banks that continue to operate in Russia paid more than 800 million euros ($857 million) in taxes in 2023, which is four times more than before the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit, ING, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and OTP reported that their combined profits in 2023 amounted to more than 3 billion euros, which is three times more than in 2021, the report said. More than half of tax payments in 2023 correspond to Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, the report read.

The report noted that the payment of taxes by European banks is an example of how foreign companies remaining in Russia help the country maintain financial stability, despite a large-scale sanctions campaign against Moscow.

At the same time, foreign creditors benefited not only from the increased interest rate, but also from sanctions against Russian banks, as they lost access to international payment systems, which increased the attractiveness of Western banks for clients in Russia, the newspaper reported.