The bank’s retail strategy was given a major boost by last year’s acquisition of Guta Bank and a major rebranding exercise is now under way using the name Vneshtorgbank 24. Eighty branches of Vneshtorgbank 24 will be located in Moscow and 40 major Russian regions. The aim is to increase the number of branches to 175 next year and to 300 in the next couple of years.
“The plan is to divide Vneshtorgbank into two parts, one part will be Vneshtorgbank retail services, based on the former Guta Bank, and which will focus on retail services and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The other part will be the corporate and investment bank. We will swap assets between the two parts to achieve the required focus,” says Andrey Kostin, the bank’s chairman and CEO.