Claiming Sberbank dividends for Sberbank shares held via IBKR
Earlier this year Sberbank decided to pay a dividend payment of 37.64 Rubles per ordinary share for the profits over the year 2025 (https://www.sberbank.com/common/img/uploaded/files/pdf/agm2026_vote_report_ru.pdf). Many investors hold ordinary Sberbank shares via Interactive Brokers (IBKR) and claim these dividends every year directly via Raiffeisenbank Russia (for the procedure see: https://www.raiffeisen.ru/corporate/depositary/securities/).
The advantages of claiming these dividends directly are:
- You do not depend on the willingness of Interactive Brokers to process the payment in future.
- You may be able to access the funds if you are from Russia or from a country that did not impose sanctions against Russia (as long as you did not buy the shares after the 25th of February 2022).
- You may benefit from a tax treaty that could reduce the withholding tax on dividend payments from Russia.
Investors can claim the Sberbank dividends on ordinary Sberbank shars held via Interactive Brokers via the procedure offered by Raiffeisenbank Russia up to the 2nd of December 2026 (see https://www.raiffeisen.ru/static/custody/application_terms_19102026.pdf).
Please note that in the past Raiffeisenbank Russia accepted the "normal" account number (KFN993440006) of Interactive Brokers with Raiffeisenbank Russia. However this "normal" account is now empty (see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19FRW2I8iLmdb4hZs2-ynQXptoamFX7cS/view?usp=sharing). Recently Raiffeisenbank Russia started rejecting applications that used this account number, stating that the "normal" account number is incorrent.
Please note that Raiffeisenbank Russia opened a special type "C" account for Interactive Brokers (KFN993395001). All shares from the "normal" account (KFN993440006) were transferred to the "Type C" account (KFN993395001). The account number of the "Type C" account has been published in two different Russian court decisions (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZFfBS07DanYRrjVpYnmHf2W0zHA3V1_a/view?usp=sharing and https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FVh6V2gkdRv61moZKIfLZrp1KnmGJ2HD/view?usp=sharing).
Hence investors should use the "Type C" account number (KFN993395001) when filing an application to claim Sberbank dividends for shares held via Interactive Brokers via the procedure of Raiffeisenbank Russia.
In addition many documents need to be submitted when making an application. Part of the process is that a Russian notary should make screenshots of your holdings in your account with Interactive Brokers. Documents also need to be translated into Russian.
Because of the complexity of the procedure many investors use a local Russian representative to assist with the procedure. Irina Sibirina from www.itlektis.ru has helped various members of EAHCISS to successfully claim these Sberbank dividends.