ZURICH, April 8 (Reuters) – Austria’s authorities is monitoring the worldwide banking turmoil though there are thus far no indicators of it spreading to the nation’s monetary sector, Finance Minister Magnus Brunner mentioned in an interview printed on Saturday.
“Our banks did their homework very properly after the monetary disaster. They’re very properly ready,” Brunner informed Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
He additionally defended Raiffeisen Financial institution Worldwide (RBI) (RBIV.VI) which has come underneath fireplace for persevering with to function in Russia regardless of the struggle in Ukraine.
The Austrian lender is now an important Western financial institution in Russia, providing a lifeline to individuals and companies there in search of to make worldwide funds, however it’s underneath rising stress from Western officers and buyers to stop.
In February the financial institution mentioned it had acquired a request for data from america’ sanctions authority about its enterprise associated to Russia.
Final month RBI mentioned it was contemplating a sale or doable spin off of the Russian enterprise.
“As for RBI, the financial institution complies with all worldwide sanctions,” Brunner informed NZZ. “It is usually not topic to sanctions itself,” he added.
“By the way, there are different European banks that proceed to function legally in Russia. It’s essential for us that every one sanctions are noticed,” he mentioned.
The minister additionally mentioned Austrian inflation, which fell to an estimated 9.2% in March, was nonetheless too excessive and known as on the European Central Financial institution to do extra to comprise worth will increase.
“The European Central Financial institution (ECB) particularly can do one thing about this, as a member of the euro zone we’re depending on the ECB,” Brunner mentioned.
Reporting by John Revill
Enhancing by Tomasz Janowski
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