Putin Pushing Russian Banks Points ‘Two Tanks’ at Western Firms
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Russia’s government is tightening its grip on capital markets by expanding the investment-banking arms of two state-run lenders at the expense of Western firms.
OAO Sberbank, Europe’s third-largest bank by market value, and VTB Group, Russia’s second-biggest, are boosting their corporate and brokerage businesses as foreign lenders, including Italy’s UniCredit SpA and Paris-based Societe Generale SA, retrench and pull cash from the region amid a spreading debt crisis in their home markets.