Foreign banks' share of Russian market negligible, they won't be missed - Gref

ST. PETERSBURG. June 19 (Interfax) - Foreign banks have lost in competition with Russian lenders and their market share is negligible, so no one will notice their departure from the market, Sberbank president and CEO Herman Gref said on Friday.

"I'm afraid this will be the case where the squadron will not notice the loss of the soldier. That is how insignificant the foreign bank sector is here in Russia," Gref told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"This is one of the few sectors where foreign banks simply don't have a chance due to their technological backwardness. Not because the regulator was opposed and did not let them onto the Russian market, they just lost this competition," Gref said.

Foreign banks earlier announced plans to reconsider their presence on the Russian market. But their exit from Russia's banking sector was complicated by a presidential decree issued in October 22 with a list of banks which "unfriendly" nonresidents can divest only with special permission.