VTB 24 supervisors to address entering express-lending market - paper
MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - VTB 24 , the VTB group's retail bank, plans to present for discussion by its supervisory board the question of entering the express-lending market, a project slated to begin late this year, the Kommersant business paper writes, citing sources close to the group.
The project will be called VTB Express and be developed on the basis of VTB's acquisition of Bank of Moscow (BoM) and its subsidiary Bezhitsa-Bank. The decision to buy stock from BoM in that bank was made on March 7. VTB Express will thus be a wholly owned subsidiary.
Kommersant reports that the new project's launch will be accompanied staffing reshuffles within the VTB group. Before the month is out, VTB 24 first deputy chief Dmitry Rudenko will transfer to the VTB Express along with management board member Georgy Gorshkov, who oversees the bank's retail business.
After the completion of organizational producers, they will assume the posts of bank chief and first deputy, respectively, several market sources told the paper. The core VTB Express team will be bankers that prior to the financial crisis were leaders on the market for POS lending at the bank Russian Standard , where they previously worked prior to joining VTB 24.
VTB Express intends to move onto the POS lending market via regions and towns with populations of from 200,000 to 500,000 people, sources told Kommersant. In the view of players on this market, this is a solid strategy that should be successful for the bank.
Bryansk-based Bezhitsa-Bank ended 2011 in 783rd place by assets on the Interfax-100 ranking of Russian bank size.