Exclusive: Russian officials in talks to transfer central bank's Sberbank stake – sources

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian officials are in talks to transfer the central bank’s stake in Sberbank (MM:), the country’s top bank, to another state entity, four sources said, amid growing unease about the central bank’s role as both owner and supervisor.

Russia’s central bank directly owns 50% plus one share in Sberbank’s capital. The central bank also became the owner of two other banks, Otkritie and Trust, after major bailouts of three private banking groups in 2017.

The idea of transferring control in Sberbank, which holds around a half of all retail deposits in the country and benefits from low funding costs, is not new.

But sources said that the idea got a new lease of life after the central bank assumed combined financial markets supervision responsibilities in late 2013.

“This idea has taken shape: it (the central bank) is both a mega-supervisor and shareholder (in Sberbank) at the same time,” one of the four sources, who learned about the talks from Sberbank executives, said.

Oleg Osipov, spokesman for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, told Reuters that various questions were being discussed inside government and that there was no specific decision yet on a potential change of Sberbank’s ownership.

Sberbank declined to comment. The Finance Ministry and the central bank did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comments.

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