VTB to maintain presence in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China and India

ST. PETERSBURG. June 20 (Interfax) - VTB plans to maintain its presence in the banking markets of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China and India, VTB CEO Andrei Kostin told Interfax in an interview.

"We are not selling [subsidiary banks] anywhere, with the exception of a single case. We have a principled position - we are staying put everywhere. We are only leaving Georgia, but the situation there is different. But we remain in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China and India and are promoting cooperation with national banks and local banks in order to become the key bank for settlements in bilateral trade in national currencies. We see prospects for our business in these countries," he said.

Before sanctions, the VTB group included more than 20 lending and financial companies with total assets of 20.9 trillion rubles at the start of 2022. The group's banks operate in Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Georgia. VTB also has a 50% stake in the joint Russian-Vietnamese VRB bank and 50.1% in Angola's Banco VTB Africa.

VTB has been present in China since 2008, and is the only Russian bank with a financial license to conduct banking operations in China (the bank has a branch in Shanghai). VTB also has a branch in India.