Sberbank CIB, the investment banking unit of Russia’s largest bank, has cut around 20% of its London staff, the bank's first wave of departures since the West slapped sanctions on the firm last year.

The Russian lender, which employs around 40 people in London, announced last week that it would restructure its corporate and investment bank, moving its M&A and advisory bankers into its merchant bank and folding its debt capital markets and equity capital markets specialists into its global markets division.