Romania will start procedures to withdraw from the International Investment Bank (IIB), the Romanian government announced on February 26.

"Romania is about to start the procedures for withdrawing from the International Investment Bank,” announced government spokesman Dan Carbunaru on February 26. 

The leader of Romania’s ruling National Liberal Party Florin Citu has also argued in favour of the country pulling out of the IBEC as well.

Florin Citu, at that time prime minister, said last year that Romania will no longer participate in the capital increase of the IIB, claiming that the country “has nothing to gain” from participating in a bank “controlled by Russia”. "There are several things we are looking at. We will start to look at who decided that it is good for Romania to invest millions of euros in a Russian bank," Citu said at the time.

The Czech Republic has called on EU states to withdraw from the Russian-dominated financial institutions, the International Investment Bank (IIB) and the International Bank for Economic Co-operation (IBEC).

On Friday, the Czech finance ministry confirmed that Czechia will accelerate its planned exit from the IIB and IBEC. "We are taking concrete steps to accelerate termination of our membership in the two post-Soviet banks, preferably in coordination with other member states," said Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura. The ministry will look at how to give notice in banks, which would lead to departure within two to three months.

The ministry said that the Czech government does not see economic benefits in remaining in these two institutions. "On the contrary, we strongly perceive that our participation (in banks) raises security policy questions among our Western allies, which also need to be dispelled in the context of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine," it said.

The Hungarian opposition has also called for withdrawal from the IIB, which moved its headquarters to Budapest in 2019.  Hungary, which re-joined the IIB in 2015, is now the lender's second-biggest of the nine shareholders. 

"As a member of the EU and Nato, [Prime Minister Viktor Orban] should condemn [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's aggression against Ukraine and join EU sanctions against Russia by suspending the expansion of the Paks power plant and expel with immediate effect the Russian spy bank", Marki-Zay said on February 24, referring to Budapest-based International Investment Bank (IIB). The bank has been regulary criticised by Western security experts for being a potential security risk, particularly for the way that its staff in Hungary have been granted diplomatic immunity,

The IIB is a development bank set up during the communist era and later revived by Russia. IIB provides loans to companies from member states. Its shareholders are Bulgaria, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mongolia, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia and Vietnam. Last year it made a profit of €7.9mn, up 8%, and had assets of €1.8bn, up 20%.

IBEC provides targeted support for export and import operations in the member countries of the bank by providing loans and participating in syndicated transactions. IBEC members are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Vietnam. It had assets of €749mn last September.