Reported by Owen Walker in London and Cheng Lengin Hong Kong

Chinese lenders have stepped in to extend billions of dollars to Russian banks as western institutions pulled back their operations in the country during the first year of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China increased their combined exposure to Russia from $2.2bn to $9.7bn in the 14 months to March, according to Russian central bank data, with ICBC and Bank of China accounting for $8.8bn of the assets between them.

During the same period, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank — the foreign bank with the biggest exposure to Russia — increased its assets in the country by more than 40 per cent, from $20.5bn to $29.2bn.

Raiffeisen has said it is looking at ways of pulling out of the country and has reduced its assets to $25.5bn since March.

The moves by Chinese banks are part of a shift by Russia to adopt the renminbi rather than the US dollar or euro as a reserve currency.

Read full report: https://www.ft.com/content/96349a26-d868-4bd1-948f-b17f87cc5c72