MILAN (Reuters) – Intesa Sanpaolo halved its gross exposure to Russia last year to 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) of which 1.6 billion euros were loans to Russian customers, Italy’s biggest bank said on Wednesday.
Answering questions posed by shareholders ahead of this week’s general meeting, Intesa said its local unit Banca Intesa Russia held 372 million euros in gross loans as of Dec. 31, before taking into account guarantees by credit export agencies.
Gross cross-border loans to Russian counterparties amounted to 1.26 billion euros.
It had a further 797 million euro gross exposure towards Russian banks, with another 73 million euros in securities.
Intesa said in presenting full-year results it had cut its exposure to Russia, where it operates through a unit serving only corporate clients with 27 branches and 907 staff, to less than 0.3% of customer loans.
Intesa has been working on exiting Russia but it needs authorisation from President Vladimir Putin to be able to do so.
($1 = 0.9045 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Keith Weir)
