PJSC Sberbank
Sberbank, Russia’s largest banking and financial services company, is a majority state-owned institution headquartered in Moscow that evolved from the Soviet Union’s State Labor Savings Banks System. Led by Herman Gref, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, since 2007, the bank accounts for approximately one-third of all banking assets in Russia. Sberbank has faced multiple rounds of international sanctions since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, with restrictions intensifying dramatically following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In February 2022, the United States imposed severe operational restrictions on Sberbank, causing its stock to lose more than half its value, while the European Union enacted comprehensive sanctions in July 2022. These measures forced Sberbank to exit European markets, with many of its overseas subsidiaries subsequently losing licenses, closing operations, or entering receivership. Despite these sanctions, in July 2024, Sberbank paid record dividends of 752 billion rubles ($8.5 billion) for 2023, with half going to the Russian state.
