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Russia’s central bank is looking to sell Otkritie Group to government-backed VTB Bank as western sanctions bite. 

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Initially, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) had planned to divest Otkritie Bank but the banking regulator is going a step ahead by selling the bank’s wider group, which includes pension fund and insurance business. 

“We are now considering selling Otkritie Group to VTB Bank,” CBR first deputy governor Vladimir Chistyukhin told business daily Vedomosti in an interview. 

“The group that combines the bank, nongovernmental pension fund Otkritie, Rosgosstrakh and a number of other companies. We would like to do a market appraisal of the value of this business, for which professional appraisers will be hired,” Chistyukhin said. 

He added: “We are proceeding from the conditions in which we operate. The market that exists today is the market that we are considering. Yes, probably, to some degree the total value of the business could have changed. 

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“But it seems to us that to provide the best possibilities for the development of the banking business of both Otkritie Group and VTB Group their merger would be best.”

The central bank acquired Otkritie Bank in 2017 as part of the rescue efforts after the lender crashed under bad debt. 

Following Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine and the resultant western sanctions on the Russia’s largest banks, the CBR decided to merge Otkritie Bank into larger peer VTB.

The proposal also includes merging RNKB, which is an important Crimean bank, into VTB.

Last month, CBR governor Elvira Nabiullina said that the bank wants to sell Otkritie at market value.