MOSCOW, Dec 30, Russia’s Promsvyazbank let out on Friday it had purchased its adversary SMP Bank, without divulging the cost of the deal, the delinquent banking sector backup after No.2 lender VTB snapped up Otkritie from the Bank of Russia previous week.
In a statement, Promsvyazbank said that the deal included SMP’s subsidiaries, MOSOBLBANK and the SMP-Insurance factoring and leasing companies.
Promsvyazbank, one of Russia’s 13 “systemically important credit institutions”, offers a wide range of services but has focused on state employees and the defence sector since it was bailed out by the central bank in 2017.
In recent months, the bank has been actively expanding in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia declared it had annexed in September, after holding referendums condemned by Ukraine and Western countries.
Promsvyazbank was targeted with Western sanctions this year over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
SMP Bank, which was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2014, is majority owned by the Rotenberg family. Washington says brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg both have close ties to President Vladimir Putin.
