Good morning. French banking giant Société Générale SA said it would exit Russia, sell its operations to one of Russia’s richest people, and take a more than $3 billion hit to its income.

The French bank said on Monday that it was selling its entire stake in Rosbank and its Russian insurance units to Interros, a conglomerate controlled by metals billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Interros previously controlled Rosbank.

The French bank didn’t disclose how much it was selling Rosbank for, but said the price tag included Interros agreeing to pay off loans Société Générale had made to its Russian unit.

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Mr. Potanin is the chief executive and owns a nearly one-third stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, which mines nickel and palladium, two metals whose prices skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Mr. Potanin and Interros have escaped sanctions from the U.S., the European Union and the U.K. He was included on Canada’s list of sanctioned individuals last week. Société Générale has had investment banking operations in Canada since 1974.

“We intend to run the bank’s business in accordance with the best standards and practices,” Mr. Potanin said in a statement.

Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence and the senior U.S. Treasury official for sanctions, will be speaking at the Risk & Compliance Forum on May 10. We’ve also added a breakout session to discuss navigating sanctions imposed on Russia due to the Ukraine war. You can register for a complimentary ticket here.

Duncan DeVille will serve as the Singapore-based company’s executive vice president for compliance in the Americas region and as its global head of financial crimes compliance, Crypto.com said on Monday. He will report to the company’s chief compliance officer, Antonio Alvarez.

Even companies with operations far from the Russia-Ukraine war should consider their exposure to political risk as rising food prices could fuel instability, a political risk insurance expert said.

Global food prices are higher than they were at the beginning of the Arab Spring, a period of turmoil that analysts have linked to food scarcity, Laura Burns, a senior vice president for political risks at insurance company Willis Towers Watson PLC, said on Monday at a panel at the Riskworld 2022 conference.

The Riskworld conference, which brings together about 10,000 people, primarily risk managers and insurance industry representatives, held its opening reception Sunday night.

Ukraine is one of the world's most important breadbaskets, providing about 12% of its wheat and 13% of its corn. Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey are among the largest consumers of Ukrainian food exports, Ms. Burns said.

The conflict also has fueled shortages of fertilizer, which has indirectly led to waves of protests by farmers in Peru.

“It’s almost like right now the situation is as if there's a full moon and a high tide all together,” Ms. Burns said.

—Richard Vanderford

Sanctions spur calls to make private equity vet investors. In an effort to clamp down on potentially illicit Russian and Chinese money in the U.S. economy, lawmakers are urging new rules to make private fund managers disclose more information about their investors.

Several bills pending in Congress would require investment advisers such as private-equity and hedge funds to verify and report the identities of their investors. And two groups of Senators recently asked the Treasury Department to make private funds subject to anti-money-laundering requirements, which would greatly increase the amount of information about investors such funds would need to collect and report.

PG&E reaches $55 million settlement over wildfires. PG&E Corp. has reached a settlement with the district attorneys of six California counties over the 2021 Dixie Fire, as well as the 2019 Kincade Fire.

The settlement requires PG&E to pay around $55 million over five years. That sum includes payments to residents who lost their homes and for improvements to existing electrical infrastructure. The company must donate more than $35 million to local charities, among other obligations.

A Ukraine holdout adapts to wartime. When the sirens go off, factory workers at German auto supplier Leoni AG’s plants in western Ukraine grab their coats and dash for buses waiting to take them to Soviet-era bomb shelters. Then, when the all-clear is called, they shuffle back out, board the buses again and return to work.

After Russia invaded on Feb. 24, many Western companies in Ukraine packed up and tried to transfer production elsewhere. The sudden stoppages raised concerns among local officials and the Ukrainian employees that some of the factories would close for good, Western executives said. 

Leoni came close to leaving too, but something unexpected happened: Leoni’s workers refused to stay home. Showing up at the plant ahead of one’s shift became an act of defiance, part of a nationwide patriotic effort to repel the Russian invader, Leoni officials said.

Russian Railways ruled in default as sanctions ensnarl payments. State-owned Russian Railways was declared in default of a bond obligation on Monday, setting the stage for credit insurance payouts on a Russian corporate borrower for the first time since the war in Ukraine began as sanctions impede payments to foreign creditors.

• Read more: Moscow’s Central Banker Dismantles What She Built

The price of insuring against cyber threats continues to rise—with monthly rates for cyber and related errors and omissions insurance up 137% from December 2020 to December 2021—as ransomware attacks have skyrocketed compared with previous years, insurer Aon PLC said.

Aon expects the first half of 2022 to bring "severe rate increases" in the cyber market, the insurer said in a review of the market published Monday. The pricey market for cyber insurance comes as the number of ransomware attacks has jumped 323% from the beginning of 2019 to the end of 2021, according to Aon's figures.

Aon said underwriters likely will continue to bring increased scrutiny on the cybersecurity controls that companies seeking policies have put in place. Companies without enterprise-wide cybersecurity policies—particularly in the public sector, healthcare, manufacturing and higher education as well as in businesses with merger-driven growth strategies—pose particular cyber challenges, Aon said.

—Richard Vanderford

Preparing for Ukraine-related cyberattacks. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by cyber activity, including denial-of-service attacks and malware designed to wipe data from computers.

There is a risk that cyber attacks could spread beyond their intended target and cause collateral damage around the world, as happened in 2017. Evidence shows some attacks have spread beyond Ukraine’s borders to Lithuania and Latvia, but not to U.S. businesses as of Feb. 25.

There are steps businesses can take at this time to reduce risk, even when it is not clear exactly what they may have to defend against. Read more here. 

Musk says he remains engaged in Twitter strategy. Elon Musk confirmed he wouldn’t be joining Twitter Inc.’s board of directors, but said he might engage with the social-media company on a range of issues “without limitation.”

Mr. Musk might discuss with Twitter’s board or parts of its management team the company’s product and services, potential mergers and governance issues, he said in an amended regulatory filing Monday. The Tesla Inc. chief executive can express his views about Twitter on social media or speak directly with executives and board members, the filing states.

• Read more: Elon Musk, Again an Outsider at Twitter, Emerges as Unshackled Wild Card for Company

Philadelphia to reinstate indoor mask mandate. Philadelphia officials said they would reinstate a citywide indoor mask mandate as the Omicron BA.2 variant has led to an increase of newly reported Covid-19 cases across the Northeast.

China’s latest lockdowns drag on the economy. China’s strict Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and other industrial hubs are beginning to weigh on its economy, with auto sales slumping and consumer prices rising the fastest in three months.

Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, David Smagalla, at david.smagalla@wsj.com.

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