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Goldman Sachs To Exit Russia in Wall Street's First Pullout (bloomberg.com) 34

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
Goldman Sachs said it plans to close its operations in Russia, the first major Wall Street bank to leave in response to the nation's invasion of Ukraine. From a report: "Goldman Sachs is winding down its business in Russia in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements," the company said Thursday in an emailed statement. "We are focused on supporting our clients across the globe in managing or closing out pre-existing obligations in the market and ensuring the well-being of our people." The Wall Street powerhouse has maintained a presence in Russia in recent years, but the country doesn't amount to a meaningful portion of its global banking business. At the end of 2021, the firm's total credit exposure to Russia was $650 million, most of which was tied to non-sovereign counterparties or borrowers. While Goldman is exiting Russia, the firm is still trading corporate debt tied to the country without the bank itself making wagers on price movements, a representative said.
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Goldman Sachs To Exit Russia in Wall Street's First Pullout More

Goldman Sachs To Exit Russia in Wall Street's First Pullout

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday March 10, 2022 @12:04PM (#62343857)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Wall Street guys would sell the batteries out of their mother's pacemakers if it would make them a dime, so for them to be walking away the sky must be falling.

    • it's always a cost-benefit analysis with them. staying in Russia hurts them more than leaving.

      • it's always a cost-benefit analysis with them. staying in Russia hurts them more than leaving.

        Cost-benefit analysis?

        You're talking to the corruption that created Too Big To Fail. Guess I'm struggling to believe why they would give a shit about failure anymore. The taxpayer will pay for it anyway.

        Maybe we should have thought of that before granting bailouts, precedence.

        • Russian taxpayer will, in this case. And once they're booted out of Ukraine with their tails between their legs, they're going to have to pay a lot more than just that.

          Though now that Russia's dollar reserves are frozen, I'm curious if we can just hand it all over to Ukraine instead of letting Russia ever see it again. It would be a dangerous precedent unless done in such a way that assures other central banks that, so long as they aren't planning on waging wars of aggression along with wanton destruction a

          • By hand it over to Ukraine do you mean to the few people that will compose Ukrainian government in exile? Because that will be all that's left. So if someone wanted to use that money to help people within the territory that used to be Ukraine, they'd be in fact spending it on Russian territory. See the issue there?

    • And to further underscore that statement, note that many banks (mostly smaller) have not yet pulled out of Russia, and many banks and investment companies are hoovering up distressed Russian entities at reduced rates, hoping that once the sanctions are lifted their portfolio will rise.

      I just today looked into the cost of the Ukraine invasion:

      This war is costing a billion pounds a day, and although he set aside something like 630b to fight this war, he's running out of money and he's running out of it fast.

      That's a week old, and the $630B is the Russian Central Bank reserves. About half that got frozen in the sanctions, about $130B is locally stored in gold.

      Before the crisis began, the Bank of Russia said its reserves were sufficient to cover 20 months’ worth of imports. That figure is likely to be 10 months now.

      But Russia can likely still tap around $300 billion in foreign currency and gold reserves after the U.S. and various other governments said they would cut off the Bank of Russia's ability to access foreign exchange reserves held in their territories. That includes some $132 billion in gold that it holds in the Bank of Russia’s own vaults, as well as foreign currency that it holds domestically or holds abroad in countries like China, that have not agreed to enforce sanctions against Russia.

      The big issue

      • nd many banks and investment companies are hoovering up distressed Russian entities at reduced rates, hoping that once the sanctions are lifted their portfolio will rise.

        Except there is the real possibility Russia may default on its loans [fortune.com] as a way of penalizing the West. Also, this allows them to keep more money internally.

        Anyone buying Russian bonds better hope they can lose that money because it's doubtful they'll get any return.

        • Russians are saying the banks defaulted on them by freezing their assets. Expect mass nationalization of assets within Russia. Like if you used to own property or factory in Russia, there's a sign with an arrow to go seek compensation in western banks, out of the assets they froze. Basically Russia gave up whatever it had stored in the west and bought everything in its own borders back with them. Fair trade.

      • The EU pays Russia 600 million Euros a day for natural gas. Sanctions do not apply to these payments.

        The spice must flow!

      • Three shipping companies [cnn.com] now refuse to ship to/from Russia, and dock workers are refusing to offload oil [theguardian.com] coming from Russia.

        This is interesting, because it may mean that Russia can't sell oil to other countries that want it (China and Pakistan). If true, Russia could run out of money to pay for the invasion much faster than expected.

        .A ship carrying Russian oil that was moored in north-west England has moved on after workers made it clear they would not unload the cargo.

        How do dockworkers in the UK stop China from accepting Russian oil?
        Have you looked at a map recently?

        You could mine Chinese ports to prevent shipping. China and Russia would just build/use existing pipelines/rail. Again check out a map.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by waspleg ( 316038 )

      in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements

      I hope the DeFi bros are watching. They, as always, follow the money and have apparently decided that fighting the law is more expensive than leaving.

    • Naah, the Goldman-Sachs vampire squid just got distracted by a colleague, Syllipsimopodi bideni. They'll be back shortly.

  • With the Ruble at about .8 cents right now it would seem that they're shorting Russia. Playing Devil's Advocate here but what happens if Putin is removed, the war in Ukraine is stopped?

    • In the hopeful case that Putin is roved and goes the away of ghadaffi, all sanctions must be removed

      • Thing is, as much as Putin is the public face of his regime, and does appear, on the surface, to have an iron grip on the country, there are other players involved. The only way him getting taken out works to restore order is if a big chunk of his top-ranks either get taken out as well, or see a sufficiently brutal end to Putin that they themselves are scared into changing their ways.

        Any way you slice it, him going away, either through death or rebellion leading him to running? There will be a lot of chaos

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nagora ( 177841 )

          Thing is, as much as Putin is the public face of his regime, and does appear, on the surface, to have an iron grip on the country, there are other players involved.

          You have to start somewhere.

      • In the hopeful case that Putin is roved and goes the away of ghadaffi, all sanctions must be removed

        They never are. When did this strategy ever play out like that? If Russia does play out like Iraq and Libya did after their strongmen were toppled, there is a pretty fair probability of nuclear holocaust.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by etash ( 1907284 )
          why should russia play out the way of libya or iraq? russia didn't play out this way in the collapse of ussr, so why now.
          • I hope you are right, and perhaps that is most probable. The counter-argument is that Russia is more of a dictatorship than it was then, raising the risk of a less ordered transfer of power.

      • > In the hopeful case that Putin is roved and goes the
        > away of ghadaffi, all sanctions must be removed

        ... AFTER every single Russian soldier, sailor, or airman leaves Ukraine (Including Crimea and Donbas) forever and Russia pays to rebuild everything they've damaged or destroyed in Ukraine and paid reparations to the Ukrainians they've injured, displaced, or in another way harmed and to the families of every Ukrainian they've killed.

    • With the Ruble at about .8 cents right now

      You missed a decimal place or two. The ruble is currently worth [xe.com] 0.00748 cents.
  • After all the blood of their subjects has been sucked out.
  • 1) The West pulls out from Russia 2) Russia economy collapses 3) China buys everything for 5 yuans... Profit!

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