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[1/5] Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a plenary session of the Artificial Intelligence Journey 2023 international AI and machine learning conference in Moscow, Russia November 24, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Putin to approve new AI strategy soonChina and U.S. lead on AI currentlyRussian AI has been set back by Ukraine war, sanctionsPutin calls Russia to up its game on AIMOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that the West should not be allowed to develop a monopoly in the sphere of artificial intelligence (AI), and said that a much more ambitious Russian strategy for the development of AI would be approved shortly. "In all spheres of our life, humanity is beginning a new chapter of its existence," Putin said of AI, adding that Russia needed to up its game on AI both in ambitions and execution. Russia, he said, would have to change laws, boost international cooperation, and ensure much more investment for the development of AI. He told Putin in June that Sberbank was making around $3 billion annually from $1 billion in AI investments.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Klimentyev, Putin, Gref, Sberbank, Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones, Mark Potter Organizations: Artificial, Sputnik, REUTERS Acquire, MOSCOW, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Kremlin, China, U.S, Russian, Ukraine, United States, India, Israel, South Korea, Japan

☆ Sberbank CEO expects 'serious cooling' in Russian mortgage market
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Elena Fabrichnaya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest bank Sberbank (SBER.MM) expects a sharp cooling of the mortgage market following an expected 80% rise in mortgage lending this year, CEO German Gref said on Wednesday. Gref said the bank's mortgage issuance for the whole of 2023 was expected to reach 4.6 trillion roubles ($50.1 billion). VTB, Russia's number two bank, expects mortgage loans across the entire sector to total 7.2 trillion roubles this year, falling to between 5 and 5.5 trillion roubles in 2024. Vyacheslav Dusaleyev, head of retail business at Rosbank, gave corresponding forecasts of 7.3 trillion roubles this year and 5 trillion next year. Mortgage demand has remained buoyant in part because of the wide range of preferential offers available, according to the central bank.

Persons: Maxim, Gref, Sberbank, Vyacheslav Dusaleyev, Olga Polyakova, Elena Fabrichnaya, Mark Trevelyan, Christina Fincher Organizations: St ., Economic, REUTERS, Rights, Mortgage, Thomson Locations: St, St . Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Moscow, Rosbank

☆ Who is in Putin's delegation to China - and who stayed in Moscow?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, October 18, 2023. Sputnik/Dmitry Azarov/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently on a visit to China, his second only trip outside the former Soviet Union since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Who is in the Russian delegation with Putin - and who stayed in Russia? Before Putin left for China, he was shown at a meeting with defence and spy chiefs at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. The following top officials are thought to be in Russia.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Azarov, Alexander Novak, Sergei Lavrov, Yuri Ushakov, Maxim Oreshkin, Dmitry Peskov, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Anton Siluanov, Maxim Reshetnikov, Dmitry Shugaev, Yuri Chikhanchin, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Igor Morgulov, Igor Sechin, Alexei Miller, Alexei Likhachev, Andrei Kostin, Igor Shuvalov, Leonid Mikhelson, Oleg Belozyorov, Kirill Dmitriev, Putin, Sergei Shoigu, Nikolai Patrushev, Alexander Bortnikov, Dmitry Medvedev, Anton Vaino, Sergei Kiriyenko, Mikhail Mishustin, Viktor Zolotov, Sergei Naryshkin, Guy Faulconbridge, Muralikumar Organizations: Forum, Sputnik, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Soviet Union, Putin, Kremlin, Central Bank Governor, Federal Service for Military, Gazprom, VEB, Russian, Russian Direct Investment, Russia Security, Federal Security Service, Russia's Foreign Intelligence, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, Ukraine, Russia, CHINA, North Korea, China BUSINESSPERSONS, Moscow, Russian

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Russian rouble climbs to over 2-week high vs dollarMove comes after Putin reimposes currency controlsRouble had slumped to over 18-month low this weekAnalysts expect rouble to firm more in coming weeksOct 12 (Reuters) - Russia's rouble leapt against the U.S. dollar on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered the mandatory sale of foreign currency revenues for some exporters to buttress the currency. The rouble collapsed to a record low in the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, before Moscow imposed similar capital controls that saw it recover to a seven-year high. Kogan warned, however, that by 2025-2026 businesses would form plans based on a rouble rate of 100-105. The central bank endorsed the measures, a shift in its stance, after it previously warned of the inefficiency of currency controls. "The rouble is even less tradable for foreign investors after Russia re-imposed some capital controls," Piotr Matys, senior FX analyst at In Touch Capital Markets.

Persons: Maxim Shemetov, Putin, Rouble, rouble, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Kogan, Kogan, Gref, Andrei Belousov, Piotr Matys, Dmitry Polevoy, Brent, Alexander Marrow, Amruta, Robert Birsel, Mark Potter, Varun, Alexander Smith Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Russia's Higher, of Economics, TASS, Wednesday, Bank of Russia, FX, Touch, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, outflows, Locko, Bangalore

An employee counts Russian 1000-rouble banknotes in a bank office in Moscow, Russia, in this illustration picture taken October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Illustration/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 10 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble dived towards a more than an 18-month low on Tuesday before paring most losses in a volatile session, under pressure from domestic demand for foreign currency and a drop in oil prices. By 1034 GMT, the rouble was 0.3% weaker against the dollar at 99.63 . It had lost 0.8% to trade at 105.55 versus the euro and shed 0.4% against the yuan to 13.64 . "The bank may show a record profit of 1.5 trillion roubles for the year."

Persons: Maxim Shemetov, Sber, Yevgeny Kogan, Alexander Marrow, Ed Osmond, Gareth Jones Organizations: REUTERS, Bank of Russia, Russia's Higher, of Economics, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Russian, Brent

☆ Top Russian banks say exporters can now get trapped funds from India
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Elena Fabrichnaya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

After Moscow despatched troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries imposed sweeping sanctions and have sought to wean themselves off Russian energy exports. India has been a major beneficiary, picking up Russian oil on the cheap. In response, India is seeking to stimulate investment in several sectors and diversify the goods that India supplies to Russia, Kapoor said at the economic forum. Tightening global supplies have led Russian companies to stop offering fertiliser such as di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) to India at discounted prices, three industry sources told Reuters. On the transactions issue, Kapoor rejected reports in Russian media that rupees stuck in Russian exporters' accounts in India were related to oil supply payments.

Persons: Ivan Nosov, Andrei Kostin, Kostin, Moscow Pavan Kapoor, Kapoor, Sergei Lavrov, Lavrov, Elena Fabrichnaya, Alexander Marrow, Gareth Jones, Emelia Organizations: ., Economic, RBC, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine MOSCOW, India, Moscow, Ukraine, Vladivostok, Sberbank, Arab, Emirates, Russian, Jakarta

☆ Russia's rouble rises ahead of central bank extraordinary meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Russia's central bank will hold an extraordinary meeting at on Tuesday to discuss the level of its key interest rate, currently at 8.5%. A decision will be published at 10:30 Moscow time (0730 GMT), the central bank said. The central bank's most recent emergency hike came in late February 2022 with a rate raise to 20% in the immediate fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. After that, the bank steadily lowered the cost of borrowing before quickening inflation forced a 100-basis-point hike to 8.5% last month. "The central bank has all the tools to normalise the situation in the near future," President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin said on Monday.

Persons: Shamil Zhumatov, Rouble, Vladimir Putin's, Maxim Oreshkin, Putin, Guy Faulconbridge Organizations: REUTERS, Central, Sber Investments, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russian, Ukraine, Russia's, Moscow, Russia, Europe

☆ Sberbank CEO tells Putin of huge returns on its AI investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, July 19 (Reuters) - Russia's dominant lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) is making around $3 billion each year from artificial intelligence, a return on investment of about 200%, CEO German Gref told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Advances in generative AI by firms such as startup OpenAI, backed by Microsoft (MSFT.O), are stimulating excitement about the potential benefits for business and society. "Every year we invest a sum of around $1 billion in artificial intelligence technology," Gref told Putin at a televised event in the Kremlin. "And we get about $3 billion back from artificial intelligence." During his time at Sberbank's helm, Gref has overseen investments in artificial intelligence, cloud services, big data and smart devices, transforming the former Soviet savings bank's image.

Persons: Gref, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Sberbank, Vladimir Soldatkin, Alexander Marrow, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Microsoft, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Soviet Union, Sberbank's, Ukraine

☆ Russian asset manager files $2 billion Euroclear lawsuit in Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOSCOW, July 12 (Reuters) - One of Russia's oldest asset managers, First AM, has filed a claim for 184.8 billion roubles ($2.04 billion) with the Moscow Arbitration Court against Euroclear Bank, court documents showed, trying to protect investors whose assets were frozen. Sanctions on Russia's National Settlement Depository (NSD), as well as other Western measures aimed at restricting Russia's access to global financial infrastructure, have blocked many Russian investors' access to securities held in jurisdictions outside Russia. First AM, formerly known as Sber Asset Management, had 1.44 trillion roubles in assets under management as of September 2022. In 2022, it blocked Russian investors' operations on assets which were accounted for in the NSD account." Late last year, First AM applied to European authorities to unblock its assets at Euroclear and Clearstream.

Persons: Euroclear, Elena Fabrichnaya, Alexander Marrow, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Court, Euroclear Bank, Settlement Depository, Asset Management, Reuters, NSD, European Union, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Moscow, Russia, European, Belgium, Kremlin, Euroclear, Luxembourg

☆ Russia's Sberbank launches Indian rupee accounts for individuals
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A view shows the logo of Sber (Sberbank) at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia June 15, 2022. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov/File PhotoMOSCOW, June 14 (Reuters) - Russia's dominant lender on Wednesday said individuals could now open accounts in Indian rupees, expanding the range of foreign currencies available as Moscow strives to reduce dependency on the U.S. dollar and euro. "As Sberbank has highlighted, the bank supports the trend of de-dollarisation and constantly increases the number of foreign currencies available to clients," Sberbank said in a statement. Sberbank has more than 100 million retail clients and already offers deposits in China's yuan and UAE dirhams. "Other soft currencies are still only looking for their consumers in Russia, acting as niche offers," he added.

Persons: Anton Vaganov, Sberbank, Anatoly Pechatnikov, Elena Fabrichnaya, Alexander Marrow, Louise Heavens, Sharon Singleton Organizations: St ., Economic, REUTERS, U.S ., UAE dirhams, Thomson Locations: St, St . Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia, MOSCOW, Moscow, yuan, UAE

☆ Russia should not take temporary control of foreign banks' units, central-bank governor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree placing the Russian assets of Finland's Fortum (FORTUM.HE) and Germany's Uniper (UN01.DE), which both operate power plants in Russia, under Moscow's control. "Such decisions should be made with very good reasons, connected to the stable functioning of the Russian economy," Nabiullina said when asked whether Russia could do the same with banks. Foreign banks have stepped in to take business from Russian lenders hit by sweeping Western sanctions imposed after Moscow despatched troops to Ukraine in February 2022. Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI), earned more than half of its profit last year from Russia. Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, Vladimir Soldatkin, Alexander Marrow and Jake Cordell; Editing by Sharon SingletonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's VTB reports profitable Q1, on track for sharp recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elena Fabrichnaya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in UkraineMOSCOW, April 27 (Reuters) - Russia's No. 2 lender VTB (VTBR.MM) on Thursday posted first quarter net profit of 146.7 billion roubles ($1.8 billion) and kept its forecast for record profits this year as the bank recovers from a $7.7 billion sanctions-induced loss in 2022. Pyanov said the final price of VTB's second additional share issue will be determined in May. He said the 2022 loss excluded the bank from participating under the current version of the draft law. ($1 = 81.8500 roubles)Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Lincoln FeastOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] Just Russia party chief Sergei Mironov arrives before the Victory Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow, Russia June 24, 2020. Lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) features the "Kandinsky 2.1" design tool on its website, with versions in Russian and English. Mironov said it appeared "Kandinsky 2.1" had been based on designs by "unfriendly states waging an informational and mental war" against Russia. "They will not know what the national flag of Russia looks like and will assume that Russia is a scientifically backward country," he wrote. Mironov said he had therefore written to Russia's prosecutor general to ask him to investigate Sberbank and whether the content produced by "Kandinsky 2.1" was lawful.

☆ Russia's Sberbank releases ChatGPT rival GigaChat
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 24 (Reuters) - Russian lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) said on Monday it had released technology called GigaChat as a rival to ChatGPT, initially in an invite-only testing mode, joining the artificial intelligence chatbot race. The release last year of ChatGPT, a chatbot from the Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) startup OpenAI, has caused a sprint in the technology sector to put AI into more users' hands. The hope is to reshape how people work and win business in the process. Sberbank said what sets GigaChat apart was its ability to communicate more intelligently in Russian than other foreign neural networks. Reporting by Alexander Marrow Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

April 21 (Reuters) - Demand for the Chinese yuan is growing in Russia, the CEO of Sberbank (SBER.MM) said on Friday, adding that the lender has made use of central bank currency swaps providing yuan liquidity. CEO German Gref said Sberbank was gradually raising its interest rates on yuan deposits and had resorted to borrowing from the Russian central bank in yuan several times. Gref said shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting on Friday had supported the board's recommendation to pay a record 565 billion roubles ($6.94 billion) in dividends. Gref said the bank would take advantage of an early payment option and direct around 10 billion roubles to the budget. Gref said Sberbank was not engaged in any talks with Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) over an asset swap.

April 12 (Reuters) - Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's dominant lender and a leading technology company, is finding graphics cards the trickiest hardware item to replace in the absence of Western providers, CEO German Gref said on Wednesday. Sberbank needs the cards for its artificial intelligence services and super computers and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine have curbed Russia's access to some technology imports. "We depend first and foremost on technology called hardware," Gref told lawmakers in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament. "And probably the most critical position is graphics cards, microelectronics - video cards for high-performance computing." In the absence of Western imports, local companies have enhanced efforts to increase domestic production and cushion the blow.

☆ Economic asphyxiation puts Russia in China’s orbit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Pierre Briancon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Cut off from foreign markets by sanctions, Vladimir Putin’s government is at pains to finance budget deficits that would have been manageable in peacetime. The financial difficulties are pushing Russia further into the sphere of influence of China’s President Xi Jinping, who visits Moscow this week. Dipping into the fund, though, will push Moscow further into China’s financial orbit, Russian economist Alexandra Prokopenko has noted. In the short term, financial hope for Russia can only come from a significant increase in oil and gas prices. Trade between China and Russia increased by 34% last year as Chinese imports of oil and gas jumped 50%.

☆ File Raiffeisen’s sanctions-bypass idea in the bin
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Raiffeisen Bank International thinks it may have found a clever way to repatriate a small part of its Russian assets. Hence the idea to swap its stranded roubles against the frozen euros accumulated by Sberbank, the Kremlin-owned bank forced to unwind its operations by the war in Ukraine. Up to 400 million euros of its assets are now sitting idle in a frozen fund. Promoters of the idea, now being tested with regulators, reckon this might conform with sanctions because the swap would not involve sending hard currency to Russia. In reality, it would allow Russia’s largest bank to recover its frozen money, opening a massive loophole in the sanctions regime.

Sberbank, which boasts around 107 million active retail clients, was releasing results under international reporting standards for the first time in over a year. Russian authorities had ordered banks to limit disclosures and dividend payments last year as Moscow tried to maintain financial stability. Net interest income rose 6.6% year-on-year to 1.87 trillion roubles, the bank said, while net commission income rose 15.4% to 697.1 billion roubles. Sberbank's annual profit came around 30 billion roubles lower than what it reported last month under Russian accounting standards. February profit under Russian standards stood at 115 billion roubles.

☆ Russia's Sberbank not expecting cenbank to cut rates this year -CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) does not expect the Bank of Russia to cut rates from 7.5% this year and sees the country's economic growth at around 0%, CEO German Gref said on Thursday. Sberbank made a net profit of 270.5 billion roubles ($3.57 billion) in 2022, the bank said on Thursday, a 78.3% drop from the year before as sweeping Western sanctions rattled Russia's financial sector. Gref said the bank's 2023 return on equity should come in at around 20%, up from 5.2% in 2022. ($1 = 75.9500 roubles)Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's Sberbank expects profit to rebound this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) - Russia's largest lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) expects its profit this year to return close to levels before the Ukraine crisis, CEO German Gref said on Thursday after reporting a 78.3% slump last year owing to sweeping Western sanctions. Sberbank made a 270.5 billion rouble profit last year, down from a record 1.25 trillion roubles in 2021. Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya Writing by Alexander Marrow Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Austria plays down concerns over U.S. scrutiny of RBI over Russia business
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

VIENNA, March 2 (Reuters) - Austria's finance ministry on Thursday played down concerns about U.S. sanctions officials scrutinising Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) over its Russia business. "The inquiry from the U.S. sanctions authority is a normal process that gives no cause for concern, because sanctions authorities naturally keep informing themselves about Austrian companies doing business in Russia," Austria's finance ministry told Reuters in a statement. The Austrian finance ministry said it would in due course address questions from parliament about Raiffeisen, as the lender's activities drew more domestic political scrutiny. "A risky deal for the Austrian Raiffeisen, which instead of - like other European banks - ending its business in Russia, is focusing on intensifying business relations," Greens lawmaker Nina Tomaselli said in a parliamentary question. The finance ministry welcomed the prospect of such a deal, suggesting it could prevent losses to savers and deposit insurance of hundreds of millions of euros.

☆ Russian court orders Glencore unit to pay up in Sberbank row
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company's headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannSummarySummary Companies This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in UkraineMOSCOW, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A Russian arbitration court said it has ordered a subsidiary of Swiss commodities trader Glencore (GLEN.L) to pay about 118 million euros ($125 million) to Russian state lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) amid a row over unpaid oil supplies. Sberbank took legal action against Glencore Energy UK Ltd last year after it alleged the company did not pay for two oil consignments supplied by a subsidiary of Sberbank in March due to sanctions. Glencore declined to comment on the court's ruling, which was issued on Feb. 21 but made public on Thursday. ($1 = 0.9433 euros)Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The SWIFT global payments system block and the freezing of more than $300 billion worth of central bank reserves abroad took Russia by surprise. The top executive at the top-20 Russian bank said Moscow was unprepared in particular for liquid assets being blocked and euro and dollar swaps becoming unavailable. "No one expected that the central bank would come under sanctions, and that it would be unable to help with foreign currency liquidity at that difficult moment," they said. 'BEST FRIEND'For banks, central bank support was crucial to weathering the initial hit to their business. The central bank's forecast is more restrained, at around 1 trillion roubles.

An Austrian official said that Austrian authorities were monitoring the situation at Raiffeisen and its business in Russia closely because of the bank's importance. Almost a year since Moscow launched what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, Raiffeisen is among a handful of European banks that remain in Russia. Raiffeisen made a net profit of roughly 3.8 billion euros last year, thanks in large part to a 2 billion euro plus profit from its Russia business. Alternatively, OFAC can also resort to less stringent measures such as levying fines and sending warning letters over sanctions violations. OFAC has sanctioned five major Russian banks, including state-backed Sberbank (SBER.MM) part of a response to that country's invasion of Ukraine, as well as wealthy oligarchs.

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