OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2011. VTB Bank has finalized VTB Bank North-West’s reorganization and consolidated it into its structure. As a result of the legal procedures VTB North-West Regional Center was established on the basis of former VTB Bank North-West Head Office, reported the press-centre of VTB.

North-West Regional Center’s main responsibilities include enhancing VTB Group’s corporate business in the North West region of Russia. The regional center is independent to run its own pricing policy to promote lending.

The Regional Center supervises VTB Bank’s branches in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, as well as in Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Pskov, Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Murmansk, Kirov and the Republic of Karelia.

According to  Ekaterina Petelina, member of VTB Management Board, “it was a complicated and large-scale project. We are proud of saving VTB North West Bank’s professional team as well as reaching substantial growth in the region. Our successful experience makes VTB more confident in terms of new M&A deals”.

“VTB North West’s experience, efficiency, flexibility and in-depth knowledge of regional customers together with VTB’s investment resources and technologies will definitely improve customer relations in the North West,” says Denis Bortnikov, VTB Bank’s Senior Vice President and Head of North-West Regional Center.

VTB North West integration is currently the largest merger project in the Russian banking market. The estimated economic efficiency will amount to RUB 500-700 million per year.

JSC VTB Bank and its subsidiaries (the VTB Group or the Group) is a leading Russian banking group, offering a wide range of banking services and products across Russia, certain CIS countries and in selected countries of Western Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Group has a network of 957 branches located across Russia, CIS and Europe. Today outside of Russia, the Group operates through five subsidiary banks located in the CIS (Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan), subsidiary bank in Georgia, five banks located in Europe (Austria, Germany, France, UK and Cyprus), one subsidiary bank and one financial company in Africa (Angola, Namibia), and an associated bank in Vietnam. VTB also has branches in India and China and a presence in Singapore and UAE through the branches of its UK investment banking subsidiary.

As of 30 September 2010, VTB was the second largest financial group in Russia by assets (RUB 3 753 billion) and by customer accounts (RUB 1 839 billion).

The Government of the Russian Federation is VTB’s main shareholder and owns, through the Federal Property Management Agency, 75.5% of its registered share capital.