The ceremony was attended by Sergey Naryshkin, head of the Russian presidential administration, Azerbaijan's first deputy prime minister, Yaqub Eyyubov, and VTB's president and chairman of the board, Andrey Kostin.
Kostin told journalists that VTB Azerbaijan intends to develop as a general bank providing a wide range of banking services. The bank will initially focus on serving corporate clients and financing foreign trade operations. VTB plans to develop retail and investment banking in Azerbaijan in future and will open branches in Baku, Ganja and Sumgayit."Azerbaijan has great industrial and commercial potential which makes it attractive to investments. The CIS is a priority market for VTB Group. Entering the Azerbaijani market is a logical step which will allow the VTB Group to encompass one of the most promising markets for development in the CIS," Kostin said.
Alim Guliyev, first deputy chairman of the board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, told the ceremony that the opening of VTB Azerbaijan was a sign of confidence in Azerbaijan at a time of world crisis.
“Foreign investors continue to show interest in Azerbaijan. We have received applications from overseas banks to acquire equity stakes in local banks or to enter the domestic market. There are also concrete applications from CIS member countries’ banks and foreign banks,” Guliyev said.
VTB Azerbaijan received its banking licence from the Central Bank on 11 March 2009. As of 1 November 2009, VTB Azerbaijan had assets of 16.06 million manats ($20m) and founding capital of 7.815m manats ($9.7).
VTB Azerbaijan's shareholders are VTB Azerbaijan open joint-stock company (51%), Ata Holding (48.99%) and a private individual (0.01%).
VTB is one of Russia's largest banks. The Russian government is the majority shareholder in VTB with an 85.5% stake.
Novosti-Azerbaijan Fineko/abc.az
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