VTB Today

Striving to diversify its activity, VTB Group continues to expand the scope of its operations in the Russian market and offers its customers a wide range of banking products and services applicable worldwide:

In this way VTB:

• opens and maintains hard currency, Ruble and precious metals accounts;
• effects settlement and cash services, including cash collection, counting and depositing;
• makes domestic settlements in Rubles and hard currencies;
• makes international settlements in the form of documentary L/Cs, collections and transfers;
• purchases and sells foreign currencies for Rubles, converts a foreign currency in another foreign currency;
• manages Ruble and hard currency assets;
• purchases, sells and effects custody of various securities;
• offers brokerage services for operations in Government bonds;
• offers brokerage services in the organized stock market on the MICEX SE;
• effects banknotes transactions in any hard currency;
• effects precious metals operations, including operations in precious metal coins;
• purchases, sells and collects bills of exchange and promissory notes by customer order;
• provides loans in Rubles and hard currencies;
• issues guarantees for its customers and correspondent banks’ operations as well as for foreign loans raised;
• effects operations in certificates of deposit, bills of exchange and promissory notes issued by the Bank;
• acts as a foreign exchange control agent;  
• issues and services international bank cards;
• purchases and sells hard currencies for cash and payment documents in hard currencies;
• checks authenticity and fitness of banknotes and payment documents;
• rents out deposit boxes in a specially equipped vault; and
• provides financial and consulting services.

VTB maintains leadership among Russian banks in bullion transactions.In April 1998, VTB was the first Russian bank to obtain the General license for the export of fine gold and silver. Thus, VTB, which previously had exported gold only by instructions of the Russian Government, got an additional opportunity to sell in the international market precious metals purchased in the domestic market and to sell gold by orders of its Russian customers.

VTB actively develops cooperation with gold mining enterprises through extending loans for such companies to get ready for the gold extraction season. VTB’s policy is aimed at servicing gold mining enterprises at the local level through its branch network in the major gold mining regions such as Magadan, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Krasnoyarsk, etc.

VTB remains an active participant in international and domestic FOREX and money markets. The Bank has successfully been trading in all government and corporate securities and is presently one of the leading Russian custodians.

VTB maintains a strong leadership among Russian banks in foreign trade settlements. It actively develops cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). A number of joint projects have been put into effect and are being developed now. After the 1998 financial crisis, VTB became the first Russian participant in the EBRD`s Trade Facilitation Program, and remains the most active Russian user of the Program.

VTB successfully co-operates with foreign export insurance agencies and export-import banks, which take VTB’s risks on a short- and medium-term basis. With a view to draw credit facilities established by export insurance agencies, several facility agreements were entered into with major foreign banks, as well as export-import banks of the relevant countries. Presently, the total amount of credit facilities extended to VTB and facility agreements signed has exceeded USD 6 billion.

At present, VTB has signed agreements with the following banks:

AKA-Bank (Germany); DZ Bank (Germany); Mediobanca (Italy); Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (Italy); Raiffeisen Bank (Austria); UBS AG (Switzerland); BNP Paribas (France); Societe Generale (France); Calyon (France);

ABN AMRO (Netherlands); Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Japan); Nordea Bank (Finland); Export-Import Bank of India (India); Export-Import Bank of China (China); Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (China); HSBC (UK - Czech Repuplic); Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria – BBVA (Spain); Export Development Canada (Canada).

Under these agreements, VTB’s customers get funding for their projects in a diversity of sectors:

motor industry; shipbuilding; metallurgy; telecommunications; food industry;

agriculture; pharmaceutics; woodworking; construction; aviation and others.

Successful advance achieved in these projects is reflective of the impeccable business reputation and reliability of VTB recognised by international financial institutions, since all operations within their framework do not imply the RF Government guarantees.


VTB uses a wide range of financial instruments to raise untied funds in the international markets to channel them into financing a growing volume of its asset operations and enhancing its corporate development. The Bank adheres to the policy of diversifying its funding sources in:

• geography, currencies;
• instruments;
• investor types.

VTB raises funds through syndicated loans, Eurobonds, Schuldscheindarlehen local debenture loans, etc.

Despite unfavourable financial market environment, VTB made two successful issues of its Eurobonds in H1 2008. In particular, in May 2008, VTB placed a record single tranche Eurobond issue worth USD 2 billion. At that moment, it was also the largest single tranche borrowing in the international capital market ever made by a financial institution from the CIS and CEE region. The Eurobonds were issued at a fixed rate to mature in 10 years and with a 5 year put option. The annual coupon rate was 6.875 per cent.

In June, VTB made a EUR 1 billion Eurobond placement, the largest euro-denominated issue by an emerging market financial institution. The Eurobonds will mature in 3 years, with the annual coupon rate being 8.25 per cent.

The total untied funds raised by VTB in international markets are about USD 10 billion.

VTB has one of the widest correspondent networks among Russian banks, embracing over 1,800 correspondent banks located in more than 100 countries of the world. Interbank co-operation is constantly growing with leading financial institutions in countries, being Russia’s permanent trading partners. Presently, co-operation agreements have been entered into with credit institutions of the following countries:

• Algeria;
• Brazil;
• Vietnam;
• Georgia;
• Israel;
• India;
• Kazakhstan;
• China;
• Malaysia;
• Poland;
• Ukraine and other countries.

In March 2009, Global Finance, a financial magazine of recognized authority, named VTB as “The Best Emerging Market Bank in Central and Eastern Europe”. The assessment was based on such criteria as asset growth, efficiency, relationships with strategic customers, quality of services, etc.

VTB`s strategic goal in the domestic banking market is to become a comprehensive financial institution up to European standards and to improve its competitive edge. For this purpose, in August 2005, a specialized subsidiary bank of VTB was launched offering services to households and SMEs under the brand of VTB 24.

Through its subsidiary bank providing a full range of retail services, VTB continued to implement most important and socially meaningful programs of mortgage lending and small business support.

These programs are further evidence of VTB’s strategy being implemented throughout the Russian Federation. In the core of the strategy lies the task to contribute to the national economic growth potential through developing private entrepreneurship and promoting a large-scale system of long-term mortgage lending.

In 2008, acting in compliance with the Development Strategy, VTB continued to enhance its investment banking business on the basis of VTB Capital having its offices in Moscow, London and Singapore. VTB Capital is focused on offering the Group’s customers such investment banking services as:

• consulting in capital market operations and M&As both in Russia and abroad;
• direct investment business;
• global commodity market operations;
• asset management.

A key business line of VTB Capital is arranging securities issues for the Group’s corporate customers. VTB is a recognized leader in this sphere and has traditionally been ranked on top among corporate bonds’ arrangers and underwriters in the Russian market. VTB Group foreign network is represented by:

1. Banks and financial companies in:
   • Almaty (Kazakhstan);
   • Baku (Azerbaijan);
   • Berlin (Germany);
   • Vienna (Austria);
   • Windhoek (Namibia);
   • Yerevan (Armenia);
   • Kiev (Ukraine);
   • Limassol (Cyprus);
   • London (United Kingdom);
   • Luanda (Angola);
   • Minsk (Belarus);
   • Paris (France);
   • Tbilisi (Georgia);
   • Frankfurt-am-Main (Germany).
   
   
   
2. Branches in:
   • Dubai (UAE);
   • New Delhi (India);
   • Singapore;
   • Shanghai (China).
   
   
3. Representative offices in:
   • Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan);
   • Milan (Italy);
   • Beijing (China).

VTB Group’s total assets amount to USD 126 billion. VTB has extended its network of branches, subsidiaries and affiliated banks into the most important economic regions of the Russian Federation:

Astrakhan; Barnaul; Belgorod; Blagoveshchensk; Bryansk; Vladivostok; Vladimir; Volgograd; Vologda; Voronezh; Yekaterinburg; Izhevsk; Irkutsk; Yoshkar-Ola; Kazan; Kaliningrad; Kaluga; Kemerovo; Kostroma; Krasnodar; Krasnoyarsk; Kursk; Lipetsk; Magadan; Nizhny Novgorod; Novosibirsk; Omsk;

Orel; Orenburg; Penza; Perm; Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; Rostov-on-Don; Ryazan; Samara; St. Petersburg; Saransk; Saratov; Smolensk; Stavropol; Syktyvkar; Tambov; Tver; Tomsk; Tula; Tyumen; Ulan-Ude; Ulyanovsk; Ufa; Khabarovsk; Cheboksary; Chelyabinsk; Chita; Yakutsk; Yaroslavl.