Anton Vaganov/Reuters
Alfa-Bank’s exhibition stand at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 5, 2024
Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s “Meanwhile, China” newsletter to find out what you need to know about the country’s rise and its impact on the world.
Hong Kong/London
CNN
—
Russia’s largest private bank, hit by Western sanctions, is expanding in the world’s second-largest economy.
Alfa-Bank, controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, has launched a Chinese-language website and support services. The company said in a statement earlier this week that the measure would be implemented for domestic businesses.
The bank said in a statement on Tuesday that it also plans to open branches in Beijing and Shanghai, which would make it the first Russian private bank to open full-service branches in China’s two largest cities. The move, announced in September, could help Russian clients do business with China “even more efficiently,” the bank said at the time.
CNN reached out to the bank for further comment but did not receive a response. response.
“Building relationships with China is one of the bank’s most important business areas,” the bank said in a February statement.
The bank is part of Alfa Group, one of Russia’s largest financial and investment conglomerates founded by Fridman. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on the group and individuals associated with it as part of comprehensive punitive measures against Moscow.
The sanctions hit Russian banks hard: Alfa-Bank lost 117.1 billion rubles ($1.44 billion) in its annual report for 2022. A year later, the bank seemed to recover, reporting a profit of 120.9 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) in 2023.
China claims neutrality on the issue of war but is strengthening ties with Russia on many fronts. Trade with Russia hit a record $240.1 billion last year, up 26% from 2022, according to Chinese customs statistics.
The two countries are also reducing their reliance on the U.S. dollar, with about 95 percent of mutual payments last year made in Russian rubles or Chinese yuan, a senior Russian official said during a visit to Beijing in November.
At the G7 summit in Italy last week, The United States and its allies have accused China of enabling Russia’s wars, and G7 leaders also warned they would take further steps, including sanctions, to punish Chinese companies for helping Russia circumvent Western trade embargoes.
Alfa Bank said in a statement on Tuesday that it was already working on it. The bank does business with “thousands” of Chinese companies, has high ratings from China’s leading rating agencies and has also been recognised by the Hong Kong Investment Association as “the most technologically advanced” lender, the bank said.
