Goldman Sachs, one of the largest global banks, is exiting Russia.

The American bank Goldman Sachs, which ranks among the top 10 in the U.S. by asset size, has exited the Russian market after more than 16 years of operation, reports moscowtimes.ru.

The Russian subsidiary of the bank, Goldman Sachs Bank, has reached an agreement to sell its business to Balchug Capital and has received approval for the deal from the Kremlin. The relevant presidential decree has been published on the legal information portal.

Goldman Sachs Bank, which began its operations in Russia in 2008, did not serve individuals and focused on investments in the stock market, attracting funds from foreign investors.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Goldman Sachs announced plans to wind down its operations in Russia, and over three years, corporate accounts at the bank were nearly depleted, with net assets shrinking by almost 80%. However, last year, Goldman Sachs Bank reported a profit of 551 million rubles and retained 5.1 billion rubles in assets, as well as a capital of 3.5 billion rubles.

Following Goldman Sachs, ING – the largest bank in the Netherlands, which was one of the first to enter the country after the collapse of the USSR – will also leave Russia. On January 28, the bank announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its Russian business to an unnamed "financial investor from Moscow." The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

The last American bank in Russia – Citigroup, which worked with individuals – began winding down its business at the end of last year, which had ranked among the top 20 in the country before the invasion. The bank closed its last retail branch, halted the operation of debit cards, as well as transactions with the Fast Payment System, money transfers, and cash withdrawals at ATMs.

Large European banks continue to remain in Russia, but under pressure from the European Central Bank, they are scaling back operations: Raiffeisenbank, which, after the war, was estimated to handle half of all external payments in the Russian economy, stopped transfers from foreign countries for most clients in August. In January, Italian Unicredit Bank made a similar decision.

The total assets of foreign credit institutions in Russia at the beginning of 2024 amounted to only $66 billion. This is half of what it was in pre-war 2021 ($119 billion) and nearly four times less than the record set in 2012 ($239 billion).

Background. Meanwhile, it has been reported that Russian oligarchs under sanctions continue to conduct business without hindrance in the Netherlands – the designation of microbusiness status allows companies to avoid disclosing information about profits and taxes and to bypass audits.