Head of Russia’s second-largest bank says customers withdrew $26 billion in war’s first two weeks, causing net loss for 2022

Customers withdrew a total of $26 billion from Russia’s majority state-owned VTB Bank between February 24 and March 10 last year, resulting in a net loss for the bank in 2022, its chairman, Andrey Kostin, said in an interview on Tuesday.

“Since we didn’t have that [$26 billion] ourselves, we were forced to go to the market and purchase it. And if you look at the exchange rate during that period, it was higher than 101 rubles per dollar,” Kostin explained. Nonetheless, he said, he believes the bank did what was necessary to “ensure stability in the banking sector and avoid panic [among clients].”

Kostin also noted that VTB Bank made a profit in January 2023. “That gives us grounds [to believe] that if there isn’t some disaster beyond our control, then we’re on the path to a pretty successful and high-profit year,” he said.