Shares of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) fell more than 8% in Thursday trading in Vienna on September 17. At one point the drop reached nearly 9%. By midday the stock was trading around €59.6–€59.8.
The sell-off followed a report published by U.S. investment fund Grizzly Research. The fund said it had taken a short position in the bank’s shares and accused RBI’s Russian subsidiary, AO Raiffeisenbank, of participating in transactions that helped circumvent Western sanctions.
According to Grizzly Research, an analysis of Russian customs records from 2022–2025 identified $1.19 billion in deals involving goods subject to sanctions and export restrictions imposed by the EU, the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The documents carried contract registration code 3292, which the fund links to the bank’s Russian unit. About $107 million of that total involved goods on the Common High Priority List — items Western governments consider critical to Russia’s military-industrial complex.
RBI rejected the report’s main conclusions. The bank said some of the claims were factually incorrect and misleading. “We stand by the strength of our compliance systems, which have been reviewed many times — both before and after the start of the full-scale invasion,” the group said.
Raiffeisenbank remains the largest unsanctioned Western bank still operating in Russia. The group has repeatedly said it intends to leave the Russian market, but the process has been delayed by restrictions from Russian authorities and difficulties selling the business. The bank has previously drawn scrutiny from regulators, including U.S. authorities, over its presence in Russia.
