Structural Changes in the Russian Outward Banking Foreign Direct Investment

Abstract

Following recent government initiatives, such as the shift (turn) to the East and the possibility of establishing new economic and investment cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region and other regions, proposed in conditions of financial and economic sanctions imposed towards Russia by the West, the study aims to evaluate whether any significant structural changes in the Russian outward banking foreign direct investment emerged in 2013-17 as the result of the proposed initiatives. By analyzing both the macro-picture of outward banking foreign direct investment and behavioral patterns of Russian banks since 1990s, the study found that only a marginal number of Russian banks, comprising of large state-owned banks, banks closely related to the natural resourcetype Russian multinational corporations, and large private banks, have the capacity to expand their operations abroad. While the increasing presence of the natural resource-type Russian multinational corporations in the Asian and African regions is slowly luring Russian banks into these markets, drastic structural changes in the outward banking foreign direct investment are unachievable in the short-term. The geographical distribution of Russian banks remains unchanged with offshore financial centers, Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States being the traditional destinations of Russian outward banking foreign direct investment.