Intesa Sanpaolo shut its representative office in Moscow. A spokesperson for Italy’s largest bank announced the decision on Wednesday, confirming that it would happen despite the lack of a presidential green light on disposing assets – which Russia introduced in the summer of 2022, months after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- The spokesperson confirmed the closure would not affect its local business, which Intesa worked to shrink down to roughly €100 million in loans to Russian clients and €700 million in cross-border loans, down 66% and 77%, respectively, from last year, according to Reuters.
Ongoing decoupling… Most Italian companies with operations in Russia have drastically reduced their presence or left the country altogether, leaving only a handful as of August 2023. Italy’s second-biggest bank, UniCredit, is also striving to limit its reach despite Moscow’s laws on selling off assets (although Yale’s CELI list marks it as “digging in”).
… and symbolic cut-offs. Intesa’s decision to shut off its representative office also carries a degree of symbolic value, as the number one representative and head of the bank’s Russian division is Antonio Fallico. The 78-year-old manager is perhaps the most accredited Italian banker in Moscow, arriving in the Seventies and nurturing ties within all regimes since Leonid Brezhnev’s.
- He has been Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in Verona, his adoptive city, since 2008.
- The Conoscere Eurasia Association, which Mr Fallico heads, was among the organisers of the pro-Russian Verona Eurasian Economic Forum, which last year was moved away from its namesake city and to Baku, Azerbaijan, to allow for the participation of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
