MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s No. 2 lender VTB will complete its integration of Otkritie Bank by the end of 2024, ahead of schedule, Georgy Gorshkov, deputy president and board chairman, said on Thursday.
The central bank bailed out Otkritie, once Russia’s largest private lender, in 2017 as part of a years-long campaign to clean up Russia’s banking sector. It then sold Otkritie to VTB in late 2022 for 340 billion roubles ($3.68 billion).
The integration, which has helped VTB soothe some capital issues after slumping to a sanctions-induced $7.7-billion loss in 2022, was due to be completed in 2025.
VTB has been synchronising the offerings for retail customers and migrating some cash loans.
“In December this year, the gradual transfer of Otkritie’s branch network to the VTB brand will begin,” Gorshkov said. “This process will be fully completed by the end of 2024.”
($1 = 92.4900 roubles)
(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Alexander Marrow, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
