VTB bank aims to service 30% of Russia's trade with "friendly" countries, CFO says

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian state-owned bank VTB aims to service 30% of Russian economic activity with so-called friendly countries by 2026, doubling its previous target, CFO and deputy vice president Dmitry Pyanov said on Wednesday.

VTB - facing a drop in net interest income, traditionally its main driver of profit - has turned to scaling up its income from commissions.

It is Russia's second-largest lender and is the only Russian bank with a fully-fledged branch in China, Russia's main foreign trading partner.

"At the end of 2025, we expect to exceed an 18% share of foreign economic activity and will raise the strategic target for 2026 to approximately 30%,” Pyanov said. VTB had initially set a target of 15% of Russian foreign trade excluding Turkey and the UAE over 2024-2026, Pyanov added.

"Net commission income is a measure of the accuracy of our post-sanctions strategy to preserve our subsidiary banks and our branches in friendly countries," Pyanov said.

"A significant part of net commission income is no longer credit commission income related to retail lending, but transaction and conversion net commission income related to servicing foreign economic activity flows," he added.

VTB's net interest income fell by 43.8% year-on-year in the first seven months of this year to 186.4 billion roubles ($2.25 billion).

($1 = 82.8500 roubles)

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, writing by Robert Harvey; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)