By Andrei Skvarsky
Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has set up two offices in Moscow to serve the wealthy and is in talks about providing these customers access to foreign securities.
The state-controlled bank, which has recently been aggressively expanding into brokering, debt capital markets and asset management, is developing a product line for wealthy clients including via cooperation with funds that invest in foreign assets, according to Sberbank senior vice-president Denis Bugrov, an ex-principal at global management consultant McKinsey & Company, cited by a report in RBC Daily.
Sberbank has set up two new offices in Moscow to service high net worth individuals and has handed the reins of its private banking arm to Sergei Borovikov, who previously headed a private banking division at Russia’s Alfa Bank.
Sberbank has approached three Russian investment management companies that offer investment in foreign assets asking them about agency commissions they would be prepared to pay it and technicalities of investment in foreign assets.
The companies are the Russian subsidiary of Milan-based Pioneer Investments, KIT Fortis Investments and Allianz ROSNO Asset Management.
