Valentina Za, Sinead Cruise and Iain WithersMilan/London — Italy’s UniCredit and France’s BNP Paribas were the latest banks to set out their Russian exposures, warning of billions of euros in potential costs from the financial fallout from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine amid a wider sector rebound on Wednesday.
The EU agreed new sanctions against Russia and its ally Belarus on Wednesday that blacklist 14 more oligarchs and freezes relations with Belarus’ central bank and three top lenders there. Shares in Europe’s major financial firms have fallen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as investors took fright at the links of some to Russia and braced for a potential broader economic slowdown.
The European bank index has fallen 15% since the invasion began on February 24, against only a 5% fall in the benchmark Stoxx index.