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Eastern Europe
January 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
new employees during a rapid roll out period of the new bank that would encroach on its Sber- bank’s traditional domination of retail banking.
Pochta’s former CEO Dmitry Strashnov rolled over and was happy to let VTB take the lead
in the bank’s development. However, things started to go awry in the second half of last
year. Strashnov has been indicted in a corruption investigation for awarding himself a $1mn bonus. These charges appear to be somewhat egregious, as on the one hand, the size of the bonus for running one of Russia’s very biggest companies does not seem unreasonable when set against Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin’s reported $50mn-plus annual salary or VTB Group CEO Andrei Kostin’s $37mn-plus salary.
The charges again Strashnov smack of political gamesmanship as at the end of the day the post bank will emerge as a huge new player in Rus- sia’s financial sector and would have significantly enhanced VTB’s power in the sector if it remained in full control of the business.
According to the Vedomosti report there is even talk of VTB eventually exiting the postal bank entirely after it is up and running. “The idea was discussed that in future VTB can transfer its share to Post Bank to someone else,” the paper cited
a person familiar with the top managers of both shareholders, as well as the state banker and one of the federal officials as saying. However, VTB has denied that its role in the post bank is temporary.
February 22, 2018, Prague
Cbonds CEE Bond Conference
Cbonds CEE Bond Conference is going to become a special unique event, dedicated to the bond markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
Expected number of participants: 150.
Countries breakdown: CEE countries, Western Europe, the UK, Russia & CIS.
Sector breakdown: buy-side, investment banks, universal banks, bond issuers, infrastructure.
Main topics to discuss:
• Macroeconomic and CEE fixed income analysts panel
• Institutional investors panel • DCM panel
• CEE countries bond markets • High-yield panel
Contacts
Sponsorship:
Sergey Zobov: szobov@cbonds.info, +7 (812)336-97-21 *103
Participation:
Ksenia Ardelyan: ka@cbonds.info +7 (812) 336-97-21 *132