In the first half of 2016 VTB carried out TEF transactions in more than 30 countries, with a large amount of deals linked to Sino-Russian trade. The key factors were the widening partnership with Russia’s export credit agency (EXIAR) and the need for financing China-related trade. In 2015 VTB in cooperation with Chinese banks arranged trade transactions totaling to RUB160 bn (over USD 2.4bn) and signed an agreement with Chinese export credit agency Sinosure in the amount of USD 2.0bn aimed to facilitate Sinosure-covered trades.
A key direction in China-related business has been wide-ranging collaboration with the ECAs to provide solutions for producers, exporters and importers of Russian and Chinese goods and services. They also plan to use the unique advantage of VTB Shanghai which is the only Russian bank in China with fully operational banking license. VTB Shanghai can also provide conventional trade finance instruments such as the issuance of guarantees and letters of credits’ discounting and serves as a market maker in RUB/CNY currency instruments.
As of year-end 2015, VTB’s TEF transaction volume stood at over RUB 250bn (USD 3.8bn) and spread across 55 countries. The volume of new business undertaken by VTB since 2013 has exceeded RUB 600bn (USD 9.0bn), while Russian trade turnover has been decreasing for the last 2 years.
Yuri Soloviev, First Deputy President and Chairman of VTB bank Management Board, said: “We have managed to successfully grow our trade and export finance portfolio, building it out beyond traditional trade flows such as trade with the European Union and CIS countries. Within the last three years our trade and export finance portfolio has increased seven times, spanning a range of different industries, including transport, infrastructure, metals and mining, oil and gas, energy and retail.”
