Sberbank and VTB have set their sights on European absorption

President's second largest bank of Russia Andrei Kostin, VTB said in an interview with The Financial Times (FT), that the bank's development strategy involves the absorption by the example of banks Santander and Citigroup. It is reported Gazeta.ru, on Monday, May 30, citing the publication in the journal. "We will grow organically, but if there is a good opportunity, we will fly" - said Kostin. "First of all we are interested in Russia, then the CIS countries", - he added. Despite the fact that Costin did not consider expansion in Western Europe a good idea, Russia's largest bank Sberbank plans to expand its presence in Austria, writes the FT. However analysts believe that banks in Austria lowest market capitalization among banks in Europe, next month, not all the Austrian financial institutions can pass stress tests. Sberbank, which last month announced the purchase of the Austrian Volksbank International, invited to its board of directors of the former president of the Italian bank Unicredit, Alessandro Profumo, who began exploring the possibility of development of the Savings Bank in Eastern Europe, especially in the Baltics and Kazakhstan. Sberbank wants to use Austria as a springboard, says FT. Russia's largest bank was considering investing in the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, said a source familiar with the plans of the bank, although the Raiffeisen exclude this possibility. Head of the Russian rating agency RusRating Richard Hainsworth warned that all the absorption of the Savings Bank may take longer. "You will need the approval of Russian authorities, and this will turn into a bureaucratic process and take a long time" - quoted by FT Hainsworth. "But once it can happen" - he adds. Sberbank and VTB, the majority of which belongs to the government, to recognize that development in the countries of Eastern Europe, especially Poland, can be a difficult step because of the history of Russia and its consequences, tangible today. Several major banks in Poland are already owned by crisis-hit financial institutions - the Belgian KBC, niderlandskomu ING, Portuguese BCP Millennium. Banks in Eastern Europe later this year should finally recover from the crisis, the newspaper said. Analysts predict the growth of loans to 15% profit - pre-crisis levels.