SBERBANK HAS SECURED THE RETURN OF $ 105 MILLION FROM ITS FORMER BRITISH "DAUGHTER"

Sberbank has secured the return of assets held in the correspondent accounts of its former "daughter" in the UK – Sberbank CIB UK. More than $100 million was under the control of this department, which was lost due to sanctions. As a result, Sberbank managed to get the money back in accordance with the verdict of the Russian court. Lawyers consider this to be a unique case in the practice of collecting funds from foreign companies.

Sberbank CIB UK, a subsidiary of Sberbank, was previously engaged in investment activities and served Russian and international companies. With the imposition of sanctions in the spring of 2022, the unit was blocked. Correspondent accounts in Western banks were frozen and operations were stopped.

Rusbankrot already wrote about the litigation initiated by Sberbank in the spring of 2024 in early summer. The credit institution demanded to recover debts exceeding $130 million. At the end of June, it became known that the Moscow arbitration court had recovered 12 billion rubles ($105 million) from the British structure. The bank plans to recover about £12.6 million, relying on Russian justice.

Meanwhile, such a collection of funds may affect the position of other creditors of Sberbank CIB UK. The return of $105 million could significantly undermine the financial capabilities of the British company. British bankruptcy law provides for the principle of equality of creditors, the violation of which may entail claims against Sberbank and a possible challenge to the write-off.

The subsidiary itself was previously placed under external management, which is handled by the British firm Teneo Financial Advisory. By the end of 2021, experts estimated the assets of the "daughter" at $ 1.14 billion. Currently, the available assets are under implementation to meet obligations to creditors, which amount to about $ 1 billion.

Experts call this example of a refund atypical, since Russian court decisions are rarely executed abroad. The only exceptions are "friendly" jurisdictions. In the situation with Sberbank, it was possible to return the money, since a significant part of the funds were in the Russian Federation.