Kostin: VTB can only buy Citigroup’s loan portfolio “for free”

VTB not interested in buying a loan portfolio of retail business and business to work with small and medium-sized businesses (SME) of the American financial corporation Citigroup, told reporters at a briefing as part of WEF Andrey Kostin, head of the bank.

According to him, VTB may be interested in buying Citi’s assets “only for free if.”

“We seriously have such a principled position, it even somewhat diverges from the position of the Central Bank, although we understand their position. We were arrested, frozen, removed from the leadership of our foreign banks, this is billions of dollars, billions of euros. And so we very actively supported the adoption of the presidential decree on the prohibition of free sale. Because, of course, there is a demand for these banks, but it seems to us that there should be a principle of reciprocity here, and I have already spoken about this, ”VTB Kostin explained the position.

He stressed that they are aware of the interests of Western banks in the exchange, but, according to Kostin, it would be “wrong” to pay “some serious money and be left with zero”. The head of VTB noted that “formally” the acquisition of assets does not fall under the decree, the bank believes that “parity of interests” must be observed. “We have long refused to buy, even before the imposition of sanctions. We looked closely, but more for educational purposes. So no, we have no plans,” summed up Kostin.

American global financial corporation Citigroup (it owns Citibank) declared about the desire to sell their retail business in Russia back in April 2021. In the summer of 2021, Citibank was also interested in Alfa Bank and “Tinkoff“, wrote RBC. In March 2022, Citibank decided to expand the perimeter of the sale of the business: in addition to the retail business, the business of the commercial bank department was added to the sale, and they also announced a reduction in operations and presence in the country, in particular, they stopped attracting new customers. In early June, it became known that Citigroup was negotiating the sale of part of its business in Russia with several Russian companies, including Expobank and Reso-Garantiya insurance company, wrote financial times.

August 25 in the press service of Citigroup reportedthat the company has decided to wind down its retail business as well as its SME business in Russia, and will seek to divest some of its retail business portfolios during this process. Later, RBC, citing two sources in the financial market informedthat the bank “Uralsib” became interested in the asset.