Russia's VTB hires former central banker to lead international payments push

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's second biggest lender VTB said on Tuesday it had hired former central banker Olga Skorobogatova to build and develop the bank's international payments infrastructure, months after she left a similar role at the Bank of Russia.

Russia has grappled with payment issues due to Western sanctions imposed after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his army into Ukraine in February 2022.

The restrictions have blocked Russia from dollar markets and the SWIFT global payments system, particularly for transactions with China.

Skorobogatova, a former first deputy governor at the Bank of Russia, was in charge of digital projects there, including the digital rouble and Russia's domestic payments system. She resigned in November.

"Olga will be responsible for VTB's strategic development and strategic partnerships, as well as for building and developing international payment systems," VTB said in a statement.

Upon resigning, the central bank credited Skorobogatova, who is under personal U.S. sanctions, with creating the digital infrastructure that helped Russia's financial sector withstand some of the sanctions shock.

VTB said it has nearly replaced all IT solutions that previously relied on foreign software with domestic substitutes.

"The bank is actively testing different Russian IT solutions to form a fail-safe IT infrastructure, technologically independent from foreign solutions," VTB said.

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn)