“VTB Bank, model participant of Azerbaijan's economic life”
By Aynur Jafarova
VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) Joint Stock Company is a model participant of Azerbaijan's economic life, Russia's ambassador to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin said on September 5.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a new branch of the bank in Baku, the diplomat said this is an index of expansion and strengthening of Russian business in Azerbaijan.
"It is a very good event and I am very glad to participate in it as the ambassador of the Russian Federation," he said. "VTB has been operating in Azerbaijan's market for more than 5 years. It has been doing its work very well by fulfilling all its obligations to the stockholders and clients."
Dorokhin also noted Azerbaijan and VTB Bank have developed special relations.
"Recently, Azerbaijan obtained some shares of VTB Bank," he added. "That's why this bank has a major role in expansion of Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation, and it is dealing with this issue pretty well."
In his remarks, Chairman of Executive Committee of VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) Yuriy Yakovlev said the bank continues to develop its branch network in the country.
"We have some ambitious plans for the next year. We plan to open branches in Ganja and Sumgayit," he noted.
Currently, VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) is presented by 10 POPs, including Customer service department under the head office and 9 branches. The branch network of the bank will comprise 20 banks till the end of 2016.
VTB is a strong backbone Russian credit institution with a broad international presence and strong financial position. Azerbaijan's state oil fund SOFAZ owns 2.95 percent of the shares in VTB Bank, which cost it $500 million.
VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) is a subsidiary of VTB Bank. Shareholders of VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) are VTB Bank and AtaHolding.
VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) offers services to clients of corporate business, small business and private clients.
Earlier VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) told Trend Agency that the bank works normally to provide a full range of services for deposit and loan contracts as well as transactions including money transfer and payments with bank cards, despite the declared U.S. sanctions against a number of Russian banks.
"We emphasize that the imposed sanctions will have no impact on our customers - the bank will continue to provide its full range of services and obligations in full volume and in all currencies, with which it has worked. The representatives of Visa and Mastercard international payment systems have already shown that the bank's plastic cards can also be used without limitation both on the territory of our country and abroad," the bank said.