Sberbank

Putin visits a Moscow branch of Sberbank, November 2001. in 1841 1991–2013 In 1991, the operations of the State Labor Savings Banks System of the USSR in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic were reorganised into the Joint-Stock Commercial Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (Sberbank of Russia). In post-Soviet Russia, Sberbank is the largest universal bank despite growing competition from private and other state-owned commercial banks. The bank has gradually expanded its international presence. Since 2007, Sberbank is led by former economy minister Herman Gref who is a very close friend of Vladimir Putin. ; 2011 Volksbank International acquisition In 2011, Sberbank acquired Volksbank International AG from its shareholders Österreichische Volksbanken AG, BPCE, DZ Bank, and WGZ Bank. The deal included all Volksbank assets – banks in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Ukraine, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, except for Volksbank Romania. The agreed price was between €585 million and €645 million, depending on Volksbank's business performance in 2011. Volksbank's total assets, excluding Romania, were €9.4 billion as of June 2011. On 16 December 2013, Volksbank (Ukraine), which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sberbank, changed its name to (). ; 2012 Denizbank acquisition In June 2012 Sberbank bought the Turkish DenizBank for Turkish lira 6,469 billion (about EUR 2,821 billion or US$3.504 billion) from the lender Dexia, which in 2011 was "partly nationalized by the governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg". The deal included DenizBank subsidiaries in Turkey, Austria and Russia. 2014–2017 sanctions After the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia in 2014, the Obama administration imposed targeted sanctions on 12 September 2014, through the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by adding Sberbank and other entities to the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) List. This was done in concert with 31 July 2014 addition of Sberbank to the European Union sanctions list. Sanctions consist of access restriction to the EU and US capital markets. After announcement of the sanctions, and by the end of July, Sberbank's market value had dropped the most market value among the world's major lenders plus investors moved $22 billion from Sberbank's market capitalization. Still, during the following year, Sberbank's share price grew back 89%. Sberbank, together with other Russian banks, filed claims with the highest EU court to lift the punitive economic measures. On 27 August 2014, Switzerland imposed sanctions on Sberbank and other Russian financial institutions. On 22 December 2015, the United States imposed additional sanctions on Sberbank and its subsidiaries. On 15 March 2017, the president of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Sberbank (and other Russian state-owned banks operating in Ukraine: VTB Bank, BM Bank, Prominvestbank, and VS Bank ()) as part of its continued sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and involvement in the war in Donbas. 2016–2021 ; Credit cards – both issuer and payment As of May 2016, Sberbank dominated the Russian card payments market with a market share of over 61%. Sberbank's competitors in the card business are VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Tinkoff Bank, and Gazprombank, which combined only had a 29% of the card business market. In November 2016, Samsung Electronics announced a new partnership with Sberbank, allowing Sberbank customers to register their Mastercard credit and debit cards with Samsung Pay. This brought the number of banks whose cards were available on Samsung Pay in Russia to seven. However, this compatibility effectively ceased when Mastercard ceased oeprations in Russia in March 2022. ; 2017 sale of VS Bank to Tihipko In December 2017, due to sanctions, Sberbank sold its Ukrainian subsidiary, VS Bank () 2022–2023 sanctions On 24 February 2022, as a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, US president Joe Biden announced sanctions against additional Russian individuals and companies, including new restrictions on Sberbank's operations,"FACT SHEET: Joined by Allies and Partners, the United States Imposes Devastating Costs on Russia"[40] after which Sberbank's stock lost more than half of its value. On 25 February 2022, the banking licence of Sberbank in Ukraine was revoked. On 28 February 2022, Sberbank Europe was facing bankruptcy as a consequence of the sanctions. Deutsche Börse suspended trading in Sberbank stock. Two days later, Sberbank Europe declared that it was leaving the European market. Visa and Mastercard suspended their activities in Russia at the beginning of March 2022. Cards of these systems issued by Russian banks no longer worked outside of Russia, and all Visa cards issued outside of Russia no longer work within Russia. In August, the SBOL application appeared in the App Store. It does not formally belong to Sber, but it fully reproduces the functionality of the removed application. A week later, this app was also removed from App Store. Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Stanislav Kuznetsov, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum, spoke about new applications allegedly distributed on behalf of Sberbank. According to him, all new applications on the AppStore hosted by Sberbank have nothing in common with it. Kuznetsov noted that these are programs for fraudsters to remotely access a smartphone to steal passwords and bank card numbers. In July 2022, the EU imposed sanctions on Sberbank in relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sberbank was also sanctioned by New Zealand in 2022. During 2022 and 2023, many overseas subsidiaries lost their licences, closed, were sold, or went into receivership. 2024 In July 2024, Russian FIT LLC, the developer of the PayQR contactless payment service, filed a lawsuit against Sberbank in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The plaintiff alleges that Sberbank has violated its exclusive rights to the PayQR design elements. Sberbank uses its own SberPay QR service. The amount of the claim is 2.9 billion rubles (about $333 million). The hearing is scheduled for November 2024. In July 2024, Sberbank began paying "record" dividends for 2023. One share is worth 33.3 rubles, and the total amount will be 752 billion rubles ($8.5 billion). Half of it will be allocated to the state, and the other half will be distributed among the 1.8 million private shareholders. On 16 August, Sberbank disclosed for the first time in three years the amount spent on remuneration of top management and key executives. In total, they were paid 28 billion rubles (over $300 million) for 2023. This amount is distributed among approximately 650 employees. 2025 In February 2025, Sberbank planned a collaboration with Chinese researchers on AI projects following the development of DeepSeek's cost-effective AI model. The bank aims for joint research initiatives with China, involving their own scientists. == Rebranding 2020 and "ecosystem" ==

In 2020, Sberbank undertook a rebranding. In addition to changing the logo and legalizing the reduction of "Sber", the company announced the transformation of the bank into an "ecosystem". Sberbank decided to become "more than a bank" and began to develop various services, mainly digital: online cinema (Okko), music (SberSound), food delivery (SberMarket), cloud storage (SberDisk), taxi (Citymobil). Initially, the "ecosystem" was built in partnership with the large Internet holding company Mail.ru Group, for which a joint venture, O2O (online-to-offline) Holding, was created with a capital of approximately 100 billion rubles. However, in the spring of 2021, the parties decided to end cooperation due to disagreements over management methods and corporate culture. Another component of the "ecosystem" is pharmacies. Having launched an online service, Sber Eapteka (e-drugstore), Sber soon decided to expand the business and open pharmacies in its own branches. It is assumed that purchases there will be more profitable due to the targeted packaging of drugs, as well as the production of its own generics. In 2021, Sber also founded an e-commerce site, SberMegaMarket, as well as SberMarket, a delivery app. In the summer of 2021, Sberbank announced the implementation of the sabbatical practice. Employees are allowed to take unpaid leave of up to a year—with the retention of their jobs (although this required the consent of the immediate supervisor). They are also allowed to work remotely for three months a year. In 2024, SberMegaMarket confirmed that a list of 250 books banned from the service for promoting "LGBT propaganda" (first published online by journalist ) was accurate. == Deposits of USSR citizens in the bank ==

After price liberalization in the early 1990s, the state and Sberbank effectively abandoned guarantees to secure citizens' deposits, as a result of their depreciation, which, according to sociological surveys, caused a sharp dissatisfaction of the population. Since 1996 there has been a phased compensation of depositors' losses. Since 16 February 2008, Sberbank branches have started to pay compensation on Soviet deposits to certain categories of population. The law on full compensation of deposits, taking into account changes in the real value of the ruble, was adopted in 1995, but since 2003, the start of payments has been regularly postponed. In 2019, a law was enacted to delay the start of payments until 2023. As of 2022, repayment of the entire debt of RUB 345.54 billion in 2023 would require RUB 62.7 trillion (including indexation). In the fall of 2022, the government sent a bill to the State Duma to move the deadline to early 2026. == Ownership ==

The majority shareholder of Sberbank is the Russian National Wealth Fund managed by the Government of Russia (until 2020 the Central Bank of the Russian Federation), owning 50%+1 voting share of Sberbank's voting shares. The rest of the shares are dispersed among portfolio, private, and other investors. Russia's central bank cannot sell its stake without a change in Russia's laws. == Management ==

The president and chief executive officer is Herman Gref, confirmed by the board of directors on 16 October 2007. Sergei Gorkov joined Sberbank in November 2008 eventually becoming the head of the international operations and the senior vice chairman of the board from 10 October 2010, until 26 February 2016, when he left Sberbank to become the Chairman of Vnesheconombank. He greatly expanded Sberbank from operations in only two foreign countries, Kazakhstan (2006) and Ukraine (December 2007), to over twenty countries including Belarus (2009), Germany (2009), China (2010), India (September 2010), Switzerland (31 December 2011), Austria (acquisition of Volksbank International AG on 15 February 2012; changed name to Sberbank Europe AG on 1 November 2012, with locations in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Germany), Bosnia-Herzegovina (20 February 2013), Hungary (31 December 2011; 1 November 2013, as Sberbank Hungary Ltd), Croatia (February 2012), Czech Republic (20 February 2013), Slovenia (28 January 2013), Slovakia (15 February 2013), and Turkey (acquisition of DenizBank in September 2012). Following Gorkov's departure, Svetlana Alekseyevna Sagaydak () became the new Senior Vice Chairman of the Board. Formerly from 2003 to 2013 the head of RIA Novosti and from 2006 to 2016 its editor in chief, Svetlana Mironyuk is a vice-president and the head of marketing and communications since 1 February 2016. In February 2022, Sverbank announced the foundation of its own e-commerce holding, headed by its former top manager Lev Khasis, but in a week on 22 February 2022, he left Sberbank. == Operations ==

of Sberbank in Ust-Koksa, Altai Republic As of 2015, the bank had about 16,500 offices with over 250,000 employees. According to its own estimates, the bank had over 137 million retail clients and over 1.1 million corporate clients in its 22 countries of presence. As of August 2015, it accounted for 28.6% of aggregate banking assets, calling itself "the circulatory system of the Russian economy", "key lender to the Russian economy and the biggest receiver of deposits". 2021-2023 closure of international operations In November 2021, aiming to focus on priority markets, Sberbank Europe AG sold associated banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sberbank a.d. Banja LuKa and Sberbank BH d.d. Sarajevo), in Croatia (Sberbank d.d.), in Hungary (Sberbank Magyarorszag Zrt.), in Serbia (Sberbank Srbija a.d. Beograd) and in Slovenia (Sberbank banka d.d.) to Serbian MK Group for about 500 million Euros. On 1 April 2022, Sberbank CIB (UK) Limited entered administration. The affairs of Sberbank CIB USA, Inc. were also placed into wind-down from April 2022. On 23 August 2022, Kazakh financial holding Baiterek announced the acquisition of the Kazakhstani Sberbank subsidiary. Sberbank Switzerland was sold in September 2022 to m3 Groupe Holding SA and will trade as TradeXBank AG in the future. On 15 December 2022, Sberbank Europe AG's banking license lapsed, and it can no longer conduct banking activities. On 29 December 2022, Sberbank CIB (UK) Ltd and SIB (Cyprus) Limited were removed as member firms of the London Stock Exchange. Sberbank will be closing its office in the UAE in 2023 as a result of sanctions pressure. On 16 June 2023, Sberbank announced that it had sold the Austrian bank Sber Vermögensverwaltungs AG in Abwicklung (formerly Sberbank Europe AG) to an unnamed Austrian company. It was the last subsidiary of Sberbank in Europe. Ongoing international operations In the fall of 2023, Sberbank announced the opening of a branch in China. Also, to work with Chinese clients in the Russian border territories, the bank registered the trademark Сбер银行. In October 2023, Sberbank launched a line of Islamic finance products: the Adafa interest-free card and the Amana account, which complies with the AAOIFI standard. Products are available in nine regions of Russia, including Moscow, Tatarstan, and Chechnya. == Sponsorship ==

at the 2014 Winter Olympics, sponsored by Sberbank Sberbank sponsors sports and charity events in various regions of Russia, as well as educational projects including projects developing financial literacy. ==Controversies==

Savings freezing Sberbank is the successor of Soviet Savings Banks (as its name implies), whose assets were owned by the state. During Russia's transition to a market economy in the 1990s, in which these assets were sold, Sberbank provided no guarantee for citizens' deposits. This resulted in a landslide depreciation, which in turn led to severe discontent among the Russian population. Since 1996, partial compensation for investors' losses has been offered. However, until 2003, this only applied to state-owned banks such as Sberbank, giving them an unfair advantage over fully private banks. The 1995 law assumed that debt repayment to the population would begin in 2003, taking into account the current value of the ruble. However, for 20 years, the start of payments was regularly postponed. As of 2022, the full repayment of the debt would cost the state almost 200 trillion rubles. In the fall of 2022, the government introduced a bill on a new delay until 2026. Low level of service in the early 2000s In the early 2000s, Sberbank was frequently criticized for its poor service. In subsequent years, Sberbank introduced new services and improved the quality of some of its existing ones. By the mid-2010s, the bank was reportedly among the market leaders with regards to quality of client services, such as services for retail depositors, premium services and several others. Laundering stolen money accusations, Prevezon Holdings Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky accused numerous persons and entities of laundering stolen money in tax fraud in a in Russia. Owned by Denis Katsyv, Prevezon Holdings, represented by Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya and Louis Freeh, paid $6 million to resolve the claim without admitting any crime which subsequently led to all charges being dropped by the Justice Department in the summer of 2017. Pavlovgranite case In United States court, Sergey P. Poymanov (), a Voronezh-based businessman, sued Sberbank, several of its subsidiaries and executives, and a business rival for 750 million rubles, claiming that a valuable granite gravel quarry he owned was illegally bankrupted and seized by the bank in a corporate raid in 2012. Sberbank states that it took the quarry as collateral after Mr. Poymanov failed to repay the loan. Sberbank is retaining Marc Kasowitz for this court case. Poymanov was subsequently charged with a bunch of misdemeanors and arrested on May 24, 2017, by Russian police who then subjected him to harsh pretrial detention at a notoriously rough Moscow jail, Matrosskaya Tishina, which is the same jail where Magnitsky died. He was charged with alleged embezzlement of the company's money amounting to almost 1 billion rubles (about US$11 million) as part of Bankruptcy fraud. Ukrainian sanctions and vandalism of Sberbank property "It's a Russian bank" near the department of bank in Oleksandriia, Ukraine In April 2014, several Ukrainian officials accused Sberbank of funding the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, including alleged terrorism. The bank denied any involvement in the financing of illegal activities on Ukrainian territory, which was later confirmed by an examination carried out by the National Bank of Ukraine. "It is another instance of aggressive nationalism of neo-Nazi dogma that is gathering momentum in Ukraine and obviously enjoys the support of the official authorities of the country," the Russian foreign ministry stated. 15 March 2017, the president of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Sberbank (and other Russian state-owned banks operating in Ukraine: VTB Bank, BM Bank, Prominvestbank, and ()) as part of its continued sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and involvement in the war in Donbas. 2019 data breach In October 2019, it was revealed that analysts from cybersecurity firm DeviceLock had shared information about a large Sberbank data breach with the newspaper, the Kommersant. The personal information of up to 60 million Sberbank credit cards had been offered for sale on the black market. It was the largest data breach to have taken place in Russian banking. == See also ==