Some western banks have begun lobbying against EU proposals to redistribute billions of euros in interest earned on frozen Russian assets, senior industry sources said, fearing it could lead to costly litigation, Reuters reported. European Union leaders are on Thursday discussing a plan to use up to 3 billion euros ($3.26 billion) a year to supply arms to Ukraine as they try to bolster Kyiv's fight against Russia, which would still own the underlying frozen assets.

Raiffeisen Bank International AG’s protracted efforts to exit Russia faced fresh doubts on Wednesday, sending shares of the lender lower and forcing it to postpone a bond sale, Bloomberg News reported. US authorities are pushing the Austrian bank to drop a plan that would have allowed it to repatriate as much as €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) stuck in Russia, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. Shares of the lender slumped as much as 16%, prompting it to delay the planned sale of debt securities.

UniCredit faces court hearings in Britain and Russia in the second quarter after a Russian energy company sued the Italian bank for failing to honour guarantee payments because of international sanctions, UniCredit said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Italian lenders Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit still have businesses in Russia, as Western sanctions following the Ukraine conflict curtailed the number of potential buyers and Moscow then passed laws that restrict divestments.

Russia has seen a sharp spike in corporate bankruptcies, according to a report that comes as Vladimir Putin looks to tax companies more to pay for his social program and the sanctions-hit economy continues to face turbulence, Newsweek reported. The business newspaper Kommersant reported that in the first two months of 2024, corporate bankruptcies had increased by more than a half compared with the same period last year—and experts predicted an increase in insolvencies in future.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner favours using the interest accrued from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine in its war against Moscow, he said on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting which was discussing the issue, Reuters reported. Finance ministers from the G20 want to increase the pressure on Russia and strengthen Ukraine, said Lindner in Sao Paulo. "The European Union is working on how the proceeds from Russian assets can be used for Ukraine.

Digital bank Qiwi, whose Russian license was revoked by the Russian central bank earlier this month, said on Monday it saw no sign of bankruptcy in its operations and a liquidation process agreed in January should proceed without difficulty, Reuters reported. Nasdaq-listed Qiwi, a Russian analogue to PayPal, had 29 million users at the end of 2022 and 13.8 million active wallets. The Russian central bank, which has taken regulatory action against Qiwi five times in the last year, said Qiwi Bank had engaged in high-risk operations.

Russia failed to overturn a ruling in the Netherlands that ordered Moscow to pay around $50 billion in the bankruptcy case of Yukos Oil Co., once the largest Russian oil and gas company, Bloomberg News reported. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal dismissed Russia’s latest legal challenge in a saga that has dragged on for nearly two decades. The latest verdict is unlikely to result in an immediate payment to the former shareholders of Yukos. Russia has previously said it isn’t bound to pay the largest arbitration payout ever.

The EU adopted a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, it said on Monday, in a first concrete step towards the bloc's aim of using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, Reuters reported. The EU and the Group of Seven nations (G7) froze some 300 billion euros ($323 billion) of Russian central bank assets following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The EU and G7 have been debating if and how these funds can be used for over a year.

The European Union is unlikely to confiscate Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe, despite G7 plans to discuss the legality of such a move at a meeting in February, senior EU officials said, Reuters reported. The EU, United States, Japan and Canada froze some $300 billion of Russian central bank assets in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Some $200 billion of that is held in Europe, mainly in the Belgian clearing house Euroclear. The discussion comes as U.S. President Joe Biden faces Republican opposition to his request for another $61 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Countries whose sovereign bonds were purchased by Russia would not be considered in default if Western governments decide to confiscate frozen Russian reserves worth $300 billion, credit rating agencies Moody's and S&P Global said, Reuters reported. U.S. and British officials are pushing to seize Moscow's assets immobilised in Belgium and other European countries. They are looking to secure wider Group of Seven (G7) backing for the move at talks next month close to the second anniversary of the launch of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.