Sberbank waiting for CBR decision on blocked assets, their amount has decreased - CFO

MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax) - Sberbank is still waiting for the Central Bank of Russia's (CBR) decision on blocked assets, but their amount has decreased since the application was submitted to the CBR, the leading Russian lender's senior vice president and CFO, Taras Skvortsov told Interfax.

"We're still waiting for the CBR's decision on our application. But it is already obvious now that the final amount of assets for ring-fencing will be lower than in the initial application. This is because we have returns on blocked assets coming regularly. The bank uses various strategies to get its assets in full," Skvortsov said.

It was reported earlier that Sberbank plans to complete work on ring-fencing blocked assets by the end of 2024 or in 2025, and it sees the possibility of these scenarios as 50-50.

Russia's law No. 292-FZ, which went into effect in the summer of 2022, allows banks subject to sanctions to restructure by setting up a new legal entity and transferring to it assets frozen due to sanctions, along with liabilities in the form of obligations to foreign creditors. After this, all payments on debts to nonresident clients are made only with the assets of the new company. This option was initially set to expire on December 31, 2024, but it was later extended to the end of 2026.