European banks in Russia face 'awful lot of risk', Yellen says

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters that European banks face growing risks operating in Russia and the U.S. is looking at strengthening its secondary sanctions on banks found to be aiding transactions for Russia's war effort.

"We are looking at potentially a tougher stepping-up of our sanctions on banks that do business in Russia," Yellen told Reuters in an interview, declining to provide specifics and not identifying any banks at which they could be aimed.

Speaking on the sidelines of a G7 finance leaders meeting in northern Italy, Yellen said that sanctions related to banks' dealings in Russia would only be imposed "if there was a reason to do so, but operating in Russia creates an awful lot of risk," she added.

Asked whether she would like to see Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI), opens new tab and Italian bank UniCredit (CRDI.MI), opens new tab pull out of Russia, Yellen said: "I believe their supervisors have advised them to be extremely careful about what they do there."

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