JPMorgan Chase & Co joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc in pulling back from Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine last month.
JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, is engaging in limited activities in the country, the New York-based company said in a statement on Thursday.
Goldman Sachs said it plans to close its operations in Russia.
Photo: AFP
The finance-industry titans are joining those in other sectors, including McDonald’s Corp and Coca-Cola Co, that have already said they will halt business operations in the nation as the death toll rises in Ukraine and millions of refugees flee.
The moves will further isolate Russia, a nation of 144 million people and the world’s 11th-largest economy.
“Current activities are limited, including helping global clients address and close out pre-existing obligations; managing their Russian-related risk; acting as a custodian to our clients; and taking care of our employees,” JPMorgan said in the statement.
JPMorgan’s direct exposure to Russia is small.
The nation was not included among the firm’s top 20 country exposures outside the US, a regulatory filing showed last month.
The bank’s headcount in the country is in the low 100s, a person familiar with the matter said.
Goldman Sachs has maintained a presence in Russia in the past few years, but the country does not amount to a meaningful portion of its global banking business.
At the end of last year, the firm’s total credit exposure to Russia was US$650 million, most of which was tied to non-sovereign counterparties or borrowers.
“We are focused on supporting our clients across the globe in managing or closing out pre-existing obligations in the market and ensuring the well-being of our people,” New York-based Goldman Sachs said in a statement earlier on Thursday.
Goldman Sachs has already been moving some of its Moscow-based staff to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, responding to requests by some of its Russia staff to work from a different location.
Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc have also suspended their operations in Russia.
Each of the credit card giants gets about 4 percent of net revenue from businesses linked to the country.
Citigroup Inc’s roughly 3,000 workers there give it by far the largest presence of any major US bank in Russia.
The company on Wednesday said that it is assessing operations in Russia.
It previously announced efforts to exit its consumer business there and is now operating it “on a more limited basis given current circumstances and obligations,” Citigroup executive vice president of global public affairs Edward Skyler said in a statement.
Potential suitors for Citigroup’s retail operations in Russia are now subject to sanctions imposed by the US government, adding another obstacle to the planned sale.
Citigroup said that it had about US$9.8 billion of loans, assets and other exposure tied to Russia, local companies and their counterparties, as well as to the Bank of Russia, as of the end of last year.
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