VTB to start integrating Otkritie's retail business in Q4 2023

MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax) - VTB plans to begin integrating Otkritie's retail business in the fourth quarter of 2023 by transferring around 300,000 customers with credit products to its service at this stage, Anatoly Pechatnikov, deputy chairman of VTB's executive board, said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV.

VTB will conduct the transfer on the terms and conditions of cession of rights of the loan portfolio, namely transferring the debt claim. All terms and conditions for repaying the loans will remain in force following the transfer.

The bank plans to begin the next stage of transferring retail clients in the first quarter of 2024, when VTB will begin selling its products at Otkritie's offices. The main transfer of all product types should occur in the second and third quarters of 2024. VTB will overall unite over three million of Otkritie's unique clients as part of the integration.

"Integrating Otkritie's business into VTB should be completed by 2025. [...] We are striving to ensure maximum fluidity of the merger process for all clients, so that the process is as unnoticeable to them as possible. We plan to transfer the bulk of Otkritie's regional branch network under the VTB brand as of the second quarter 2024, and the process should be completed by the beginning of 2025," Pechatnikov said.

VTB has already merged the ATM networks of VTB, Otkritie and Russian National Commercial Bank (RNCB), another bank in the group.