The end of the Troika financial services brand, founded by two Americans and one Armenian in the early 1990s, was signaled Monday as Moscow's largest brokerage and state-owned giant Sberbank announced the completion of their merger. The end of the Troika financial services brand, founded by two Americans and one Armenian in the early 1990s, was signaled Monday as Moscow's largest brokerage and state-owned giant Sberbank...

Sberbank posted 29.2 billion rubles ($963 million) in net profits under Russian accounting standards for January, up 9.4 percent on the same period last year due to strong net interest income. Sberbank posted 29.2 billion rubles...

Sberbank head German Gref said Wednesday that the financial crisis in Europe has effectively closed the continent's debt markets to domestic companies and more needs to be done to preserve liquidity in the Russian...

... conflicts became more frequent during the financial crisis. The report says that "in the past three years, this broad practice has been building up in conjunction with conflicts between banks and debt holders." The conflict between state-owned Sberbank and industrial company MAIR Group is a prime example of how the crisis ratcheted up tensions and, according to the committee, allegedly led to raiding and intimidation. In January 2008, MAIR Group received a loan of about 2 billion rubles ($63...

... global ambition of Russia's second-largest bank in terms of assets. VTB — which is 75.5 percent owned by the government — has been at the heart of the state's expanding presence in the domestic financial market along with its giant sister Sberbank. But industry insiders and ex-employees who spoke to The Moscow Times were critical of the bank. The ousted head of Bank of Moscow, which was acrimoniously acquired by VTB last year, said VTB was little more than an extension of the government...

Russia isn't in danger of a revolution from demonstrations against alleged fraud in parliamentary elections last month, and the government is "on the right track" in responding to them, Sberbank chief executive German Gref said. Russia isn't in danger of a revolution from demonstrations against alleged fraud in parliamentary elections last month and the government is "on the right track" in responding to them, Sberbank chief...

... over Tehran's nuclear program have pushed up expectations for the average price of Brent crude oil in 2012 to more than $107 a barrel from a previous forecast of $105.20. This compares to a record-high average of $110.91 last year. Rosneft plans to buy Sberbank’s 35 percent stake in the Taas Yuriakh oil project for $444 million, Bloomberg reported. Rosneft chief executive Eduard Khudainatov and Sberbank CEO German Gref signed a preliminary agreement on the eastern Siberian oil project at a ceremony...

... came as a surprise, but she suggested that retail investors not participate in big equity sales directly in the future, but rather through mutual investment funds or institutional investors. Nabiullina, who wasn’t present at the forum, also said Sberbank and Rosneft, which also carried out a people’s IPOs in 2007, don’t need to buy back their equity. “The share price of Sberbank and Rosneft is above the offering price, they have no such problem,” she told journalists,...

... extreme cold doesn't seem to have reduced the opposition's determination to go ahead with another anti-government protest on Saturday —with nearly 27,000 people already signed up via Facebook — some participants in the investment forum organized by Sberbank and Troika Dialog said foreign investors are concerned. Investors are worried about how government players may change, said Hawk Sunshine, managing director of Metropol's portfolio investments department. "Any changes among the players could...

... been delayed until after the March 4 presidential election. The International Monetary Fund predicted on Jan. 26 that the 2012 inflation figure would be 6.4 percent. The Central Bank is also resisting calls from the country's lending giants, VTB and Sberbank, to address what they characterize as a dearth of liquidity in the financial sector. U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs identified the possible inability "of the [Central Bank] to stick to its monetary policy strategy against opposition...

... view such proposals with great skepticism," she told reporters. Major state-controlled companies are the country's largest issuers of eurobonds: Gazprom has more than $30 billion in paper outstanding, followed by VTB and Russian Agricultural Bank. Sberbank this week issued $1.5 billion in five- and 10-year eurobonds, reopening a market that was shut down to Russian last autumn by the deepening sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone. "We hope that the problem will be resolved and that issuers...

... sensitive personal information will be lost. The card is simply a faster more convenient way to access this information. This is scant reassurance in a country where classified government databases can be freely purchased online or at electronics markets. Sberbank, who own a 34 percent share in Universal Electronic Cards, says the smart card itself poses no security risk. "The universal electronic card does not add additional security risks to people who use it. The smart card is not only a convenient...

... economists — to assail the legacy of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The way the state functions in Russia is "backward" and "one-dimensional," Shuvalov said at a business breakfast hosted by Russia's biggest lender, state-controlled Sberbank, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. "Russia deserves a different political system," he told the audience that included Societe Generale chief executive Frederic Oudea. Shuvalov's comments came after two public rallies in Moscow...

... state’s privatization plan with a secondary listing of a 10 percent stake in London just under a year ago, raising $3.3 billion. The state now owns 75.5 percent and aims to sell 25.1 percent (minus one share) in 2012-13 and exit completely by 2017. Sberbank The largest lender in the country, 57.58 percent of Sberbank is owned by the state, which had planned to sell a 7.6 percent stake via a secondary share offering in London late last year, but postponed the plans after a sharp drop in its valuation...

... gradually eat into the advertising pie, but the biggest advertisers — represented by FMCG companies — are still likely to place their bets on television, which provides access to a broader audience, Liger said at an investment forum organized by Sberbank and Troika Dialog. "It's important for FMCG companies to cover the territory of the whole country, and television is the best way to do so," he told a panel session. The share of ad budgets earmarked for the Internet is expected to...

... company's president Alexander Provotorov said Friday. Most big investment funds view the absence of a central depositary as the major reason why domestic companies seek listings abroad, he told reporters on the sidelines of an investment forum organized by Sberbank and Troika Dialog. "From the moment when the central depositary starts working in full, we'll be thinking seriously about whether it makes sense to have a foreign listing," Provotorov said, Itar-Tass reported. The central depositary...

... companies that benefited from the surge, posting a 20 percent gain in net income last year. "Domestic demand rose thanks to lending growth, the pre-New Year's mood and higher incomes toward the end of the year," Ksenia Yudayeva, chief economist at Sberbank, said Monday by e-mail. The International Monetary Fund on Jan. 24 cut its forecast for Russian growth to 3.3 percent in 2012, saying the global economy poses risks. GDP will expand 3.5 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2013, according to...

... announced his desire to run for a third term as president in September has negatively affected Russia's economy. Ryzhkov cited the $33.6 billion spike in capital outflow in the fourth quarter as proof of such a thesis, but many economists disagree. Sberbank's head analyst Ksenia Udayeva said Wednesday that large capital outflows were more linked to the different interest rates on credit in Russia and abroad. But the exchange of ideas between Ryzhkov and Titov appears to reflect a growing awareness...

... risk in the global economy, Medvedev said, adding that "this year will clearly be uneasy." Nabiullina warned at the conference that the euro zone had already entered a recession and its economy could contract 0.6 percent this year. Meanwhile Sberbank head German Gref, who also participated in the conference, said the energy sector should be the first to undergo reforms amid the changing market conditions. "We have a huge threat in the energy sector. Where we're moving in the energy sector...

... said. CFA-hopefuls who don't want to shell out thousands of dollars for tuition, however, can study on their own. With the Higher School of Economics only accepting 25 people into its core CFA program and an additional 25 into a private course just for Sberbank employees, self-study is a viable option. Andrei Yekimenko, a corporate finance manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, recently passed the third and final level of the CFA and is currently in the process of obtaining membership and getting a charter...