According to reports, Deutsche Bank is getting ready to wind down its software operations in Russia while providing severance benefits to the 500 IT employees it currently employs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
According to the Financial Times, the decision puts an end to a 20-year reliance on Russian software know-how.
The largest lender in Germany has a sizable technology facility in Russia that, at one point, employed 1500 people. This facility developed and maintained software for the corporate banking system as well as the global trading business.
The bank conducted stress tests and disaster recovery drills last year as it prepared for the possibility of losing the site after receiving criticism for its initial hesitation to withdraw from Russia.
The lender then began sending several hundred Russian IT specialists to Berlin; according to Handelsblatt, as of June of last year, a mid-three-digit number of the IT specialists had already relocated.
According to the Financial Times (FT), which cited people familiar with the situation, Deutsche Bank has not yet formally decided to completely shut down its remaining Russian IT operations, but the decision is already believed to be finalised internally.
