VTB chairman Andrei Kostin said the Federal Antimonopoly Service in Russia had approved a planned merger of Post Bank into VTB, Interfax reported on 14 August 2024. Kostin put the planned integration in 2026. He said the existing network within post offices would be retained and would operate under the VTB brand.
- The announcement concerned approval and a future integration schedule.
Negotiations earlier in the summer
On 4 July 2024, Russian Post told Interfax it was discussing a transfer of its stake in Post Bank to VTB. The postal operator said financial services would remain available to its customers and that it intended to broaden them. That July report described a network of 25,000 service points across 83 regions and an active customer base of 8.6 million. Many service points operated in post offices, including those in small and remote settlements. Deputy VTB chairman Dmitry Pyanov had discussed different integration arrangements, including customer migration or a merger.
The original founding agreement
VTB and Russian Post signed the agreement to establish Post Bank on 28 January 2016. Interfax reported that the new institution would use VTB’s existing Leto Bank as its base. Russian Post was to pay RUB 5.5 billion for a holding of 50% minus one share through Postal Finance, its wholly owned subsidiary. The structure reflected the postal enterprise’s inability to enter the bank’s capital directly. The announced service range included deposits, current and savings accounts, debit and credit cards, cash loans and payroll services. These were the arrangements and proposed services described at the bank’s founding.
The first year’s customer targets
In a separate report on 6 April 2016, Post Bank president Dmitry Rudenko said the bank aimed to add about one million customers that year to Leto Bank’s existing base of roughly two million. The resulting year-end target was three million customers. Its business plan envisaged approximately RUB 77 billion of new lending products and RUB 24 billion of funds attracted from individuals during 2016. The bank also intended to open roughly 6,000 offices that year. Those historical plans describe the initial rollout, eight years before the August 2024 statement about integration into VTB.
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