VTB United League 2012–13

VTB Bank (; formerly known as ''Vneshtorgbank'', , lit. 'International Trade Bank') is a Russian majority state-owned bank headquartered in various federal districts of Russia; its legal address is registered as St. Petersburg. As of 2022, over 90% of the company's capital stock was owned by three Russian agencies.

VTB Bank and its subsidiaries form VTB Group – a leading Russian financial group uniting VTB banks located in different countries and offering a wide range of corporate banking services and products in Russia, CIS, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the US. As of April 2025, VTB had a Chinese subsidiary which operated a branch in Shanghai.

VTB was ranked 446th on the FT Global 500 in 2011. The ''Financial Times''’ annual snapshot of the world's largest companies. It climbed to 210th in the ranking of the 500 largest companies in Europe, the FT Europe 500 2014, and to 127th in the FT Emerging 500 2014, the list of the 500 largest companies in the world's emerging markets. VTB Bank (PJSC) has 22 branches and 3 representative offices in 13 regions of Russia and 4 foreign countries.

History

20th century

VTB Bank was founded as Vneshtorgbank in 1990 with the support of the Russian State Bank and the Ministry of Finance. It was set up as a limited liability company with the aim of servicing Russia's foreign trade operations and promoting Russia's integration into the global economy.

21st century

1st decade

In 2004, the bank acquired a majority stake of 85.8% in Guta Bank, which was reorganised into a retail bank, Vneshtorgbank 24 (VTB24). The bank also acquired the Armenian Armsberbank, which was later renamed VTB Armenia. In 2005, the bank acquired 75% plus three shares of the Promstroybank (PSB), which was reorganised as Bank VTB North-West and later became VTB's North-Western Regional Centre, and bought the Ukrainian bank Mriya, which was later merged with VTB Bank (Ukraine).

In 2007, the bank set up a subsidiary in Angola known as VTB África. The bank also took over Slavneftebank in Belarus and later renamed it VTB Belarus. In June, VTB became the first Russian bank to offer an initial public offering (IPO), raising $8 billion in what became the largest international banking IPO at the time.

In 2008, the bank acquired a 51% stake in AF Bank in Azerbaijan from AF Holding International, later renaming it VTB Azerbaijan. In 2010, the bank's board approved the phased acquisition of TransCreditBank from Russian Railways. In 2013, VTB carried out a secondary public offering (SPO) which raised 102.5 billion rubles ($3.3 billion) and diluted the Russian government's share in VTB from 75.5 percent to 60.9 percent. In 2022, VTB Bank extended a 630 billion ruble ($11.06 billion) credit line to be used for the purchase, repair and modernisation of the country's railway infrastructure.

2nd decade

In 2011, VTB invested more than $191 million for shares in the Isle of Man company DST Investment 3 which was roughly than half of the funds in Yuri Milner's DST Global. This led to Milner's large stake in Twitter. Kanton had almost no investment in Twitter. DST Investment 3 also issued shares to Alisher Usmanov's Kanton that were used to support the Kremlin's investment in Facebook.

In November 2012 some bankers expressed concern about VTB's offer to raise capital for the Basel III requirements, which were addressed by selling $1 billion of perpetual Tier 1 bonds. As of April 2025 the $551 million worth of bonds have a call date of 6 June 2025.

On 7 May 2014, VTB transferred most of its DST Investment 3 to Kanton.

In 2014, before Russo-Ukrainian War, VTB Bank was one of the biggest banks of Ukraine. VTB Ukraine went bankrupt in 2018.Ukrainian "daughter" of Russian "VTB Bank" - bankrupt
Economical Pravda (27 November 2018)

Since 2014, the bank has been subject to political sanctions (see separate section below).

In 2017 VTB said that implementing Basel III capital requirements would cost it $233 million a year. At the time, the Russian central bank was "gradually adopting" Basel III for its domestic banking system.

In August 2018, it was announced that VTB Bank would acquire a 75% stake in Vozrozhdenie Bank after its previous owners oversaw a "major banking collapse".

In September 2018, Kostin asked the Russian central bank to "revise" the Basel III capital requirements, which by 2019 for his bank would amount to over $6 billion in regulatory expenses.

In November 2018, the National Bank of Ukraine declared the Ukrainian subsidiary of VTB Bank insolvent due to its declining liquidity and worsening financial position.

In December 2018, it was announced that VTB Bank would be acquiring controlling stakes in Sarovbusinessbank (81.1%) and Zapsibcombank (71.8%).

3rd decade

In March 2022 VTB, along with other Russian lenders, was delisted from the SWIFT transaction system, as punishment for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In May 2022 soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and consequent blowback, Kostin looked forward to $52 billion in reduced cost if the Russian authorities relaxed the rules surrounding Basel III but Nabiullina demurred, while she acknowledged that some banks may require a capital injection as a result.

In March 2023 VTB detailed a $4.7 billion takeover of Otkritie Bank. At the time, VTB was Russia's second biggest bank. The Russian Central Bank in 2017 had bought the private lender to avoid its crash and was the alienator in this transaction. Otkritie was believed to have approximately 500 retail banking locations throughout Russia.

In October 2024, Pyanov was forced to deny plans to buy back shares from unfriendly non-residents, as that would impact VTB's Tier 1 capital ratio, necessary to be maintained under Basel III rules.

In early December 2024, VTB said that the savings rate of their private individual clients had reached an all-time low.

In December 2024, VTB said it would hit a record profit of $5.5 billion for the year. Corporate lending was unaffected by the 21% prime rate because "loans to important sectors, such as the military-industrial complex, are still subsidised by the state, resulting in lower actual rates for some borrowers." The retail client was "taking advantage of short-term deposit interest rates reaching 26 per cent."

In January 2025 VTB announced that it would start up a branch in Iran.

On 16 April 2025 VTB Bank announced it had absorbed RNKB, which focuses its operations in Occupied Crimea. RNKB had 2 million clients at that date.

On 18 April 2025 owing to a change in strategy VTB Bank called off its acquisition of Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex and said it would divest itself of United Shipbuilding Corporation. VTB would no longer be invested in reviving failed industrial concerns. Kostin cited guidance from the Russian Central Bank.

Mergers and acquisitions

VTB Bank took over 15 banks between 2002 and February 2019:
* Guta Bank (2004), later renamed VTB24
* Bank of Moscow
* TransCreditBank
* Armsberbank in Armenia (2004), later renamed VTB Armenia
* Promstroybank (2005), renamed Bank VTB North-West and later reorganised as VTB's North-Western Regional Centre
* Eurobank in Paris, France (2005), later renamed VTB France
* Evrofinance Mosnarbank in London, Great Britain (2005), which is associated with Moscow Narodny Bank Limited, and later renamed VTB Europe Plc, and then VTB Capital Plc
* Ost-West Handelsbank AG in Germany (2005), later renamed VTB Germany
* United Georgian Bank (2005), later renamed VTB Georgia
* Mriya in Ukraine (2006), later merged with VTB Ukraine
* Slavneftebank in Belarus (2007), later renamed VTB Belarus
* AF Bank in Azerbaijan from AF Holding International (2008), later VTB Azerbaijan
* Post Bank (Russia) (2018)
* Vozrozhdenie (2018)
* Zapsibkombank (2018)
* SarovBusinessBank (2018).

VTB24, Russian Post and Post Bank

On 24 July 2015, an agreement, approved by Dmitry Medvedev, was signed between the bank president, director of Russian Post

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases