Austria is seeking to remove Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) from a Ukrainian blacklist of sponsors of the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in return for supporting the latest EU sanctions on Russia, Reuters reports citing unnamed sources.

Reportedly, Austria and RBI are pushing for the bank to be taken off a Ukrainian list dubbed "international sponsors of war" – which puts pressure on companies to stop doing business in Russia and indirectly supporting the war effort by paying taxes and otherwise contributing to the aggressor’s economy.

As covered in detail by bne IntelliNews, RBI came under heavy regulatory pressure to come up with an exit plan from Russia, the country where it made 60% of its net profit last year.

Earlier in October, Austria's foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, openly criticised that blacklist as arbitrary at a meeting of European ministers in Kyiv, one of the unnamed sources told Reuters. Raiffeisen is the only Austrian company on the list.

Reportedly RBI envoys also met representatives of Ukraine's National Agency of Corruption Prevention, which drew up the list, to discuss how to get the group off it, the sources said. Notably, such tactics have apparently helped to remove Hungary's OTP Bank from the list.

RBI has scaled down its Russian business and is reportedly considering the sale of the business as a whole, or the splitting off of the Russian business into a separate entity, as well as a controversial swap of its loans for those of Russia’s Sberbank that are trapped in Europe by sanctions.

But most recent reports suggested that in reality RBI is delaying plans to leave Russia, hoping that the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine will end before the bank will have to cave in to sanctions pressure and scrap its presence in the country.

“Russian authorities made it clear to RBI that they wish it to stay because it enables international payments,” sources told Reuters back in July.

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