By Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -In an indication of the fallout of a fresh round of sanctions, the European Central Bank on Monday warned that Sberbank Europe, a unit of Russia’s Sberbank, and two other subsidiaries under its watch “are failing or likely to fail”.
The ECB said it was “owing to a deterioration of their liquidity situation”, while Austria’s Financial Market Authority said it imposed a moratorium on Sberbank Europe, which is based in the country.
Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange operator, said that it was suspending from trading a number of securities from Russian issuers with immediate effect.
European banks and other financial firms were also set to open lower on Monday after sanctions and other measures in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended the way they do business.
Banks and their lawyers have been scrambling to discern the impact of a fresh wave of sanctions and the banishment of big Russian banks from the main global payments system SWIFT on their businesses.
Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank were both indicated to open more than 4% lower on Monday.
“We support the decisions of the German government and its allies and will consistently implement the sanctions,” Deutsche Bank said in a statement.
(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Zuzanna Szymanska and John O’Donnell)
