Bank Rossiya and RNKB fully cover the needs of the population and business in banking services in the Crimea, so the largest Russian banks do not need to work in the region now, said the head of VTB Andrey Kostin. He also pointed out that the exit of Russian banks to the Crimea will entail the introduction of European and American sanctions against them.”You know, there are actually so many investments in Crimea today, even state ones, that they can’t master them in any way, they don’t have time… And private capital is slowly starting to return there, and the banking sector there is quite closed by the RNKB and Bank Rossiya absolutely, ” Mr. Kostin said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (quoted by RIA Novosti).He recalled that after the peninsula became part of Russia in 2014, there was a sharp drop in lending, but now it is recovering. “In principle, I do not see any big problems in the banking sector for large banks to enter there,” the head of VTB said.Before the reunification with Russia, there were about 180 banks and about 1000 branches operating in Crimea. After 2014, the State Duma of the Russian Federation repeatedly received complaints that large Russian banks, in particular VTB and Sberbank, do not work on the territory of the Russian peninsula.
