Russian cenbank, senior bankers discussed sanctions last week: sources

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's central bank last week met senior Russian bankers to discuss the risk of potential new sanctions, three banking sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The central bank did not reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Under a new sanctions package adopted by the United States on Aug. 2, the U.S. government is to next week submit to lawmakers a list of oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, and make a recommendation on the impact of extending sanctions to cover buying Russian sovereign debt.

The meeting involved the senior management of the lenders, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The central bank and the lenders were represented at the meeting by "the most senior officials," one of the sources said, without giving names. Two of the sources were briefed on the meeting by colleagues who were present.

One of the three sources said that, unusually for such gatherings, bankers were not just invited from the top 15 Russian banks, but from a wider circle of lenders.

The sources did not specify what was discussed at the meeting, but they said one of the topics of the meeting was potential new sanctions. Reuters was not able to establish on whose initiative the meeting was called.

(additional reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by Christian Lowe)