UBS Group, which has investment-banking and wealth-management units in Russia, says it’s getting more comfortable doing deals in the sanctioned state and will be even more positive on the country if there’s a rapprochement between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

“When sanctions were first introduced, we were a little more restrictive, but now we have more experience in how sanctions work so we can be a bit more open.” - - Hendrik Geldenhuys, head of central and eastern Europe at UBS Wealth Management.

Trump’s election victory sparked gains in everything from Russian stocks to the ruble amid speculation the new government would improve relations with its Moscow counterpart. This, along with a 20% rally in oil following OPEC’s agreement to restrict supply in November, fueled a revival in Russian bond and equity deals. UBS was involved in a lot of them, including United Co. Rusal’s dollar bond offering last month, oil producer Rosneft PJSC’s sale of a stake in an Italian refinery and state-owned gas giant Gazprom PJSC’s Swiss franc bond issue in November.

The Swiss firm has been expanding its local wealth-management team led by Ilya Solarev and, according to Geldenhuys, more rich Russian clients are seeking advice about their assets in Moscow. The challenge right now, he says, is getting these customers to exit their cash holdings and diversify their investments.

The UBS trading business in Moscow is an equity and forex-focused sales desk and brokerage, and there’s "no plans" at the moment to expand its fixed-income trading because those transactions can be done via other UBS offices, according to Geldenhuys.