Deutsche Bank (DBK) is offering severance packages to employees at its technology center in Russia while it seeks to wind down its remaining operations in the country.
When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the German lender reported limited exposure to Russia through loans and collateral. But it had around 1,500 employees in the technology center, where they developed and maintained software for trading and corporate banking. Deutsche Bank eventually offered to relocate the staff to Berlin, but some decided against it.
“We continue to scale back our activities at the Russian tech hub and have expanded the options available to our employees to include amicable exit and stay on the platform in addition to relocation,” the bank said on Wednesday. The Financial Times previously reported on the move.
Western banks still operating in Russia are struggling to exit the country entirely as Moscow enacted rules making sales and other moves by foreign companies more difficult.
Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, which still has significant operations in Russia, said last month it had committed to leaving, possibly through a sale or spin-off of its Russian operations. The bank employs 9,000 people there.