Bank History

Orient Express Bank was set up in 1991 as the far eastern subsidiary of Vneshtorgbank under the name Dalnevostochny Regionalny Aktsionerny Bank Vneshtorgbanka RSFSR. Originally a closed joint-stock company, in June 1998 it was transformed into an open joint-stock company with the name Joint Stock Commercial Bank "Dalvneshtorgbank" [translation: Far East Joint-Stock International Trade Commercial Bank]. Operations focused on the corporate sector and the Bank's client base was limited, drawn mainly from companies active in international trade. The city of Blagoveschensk became its principal shareholder in 1998, but the transfer of control had little impact on its business.

In 2001 the Bank joined the informal alliance set up by the owners of Sibakadembank and in 2005 adopted a fundamentally new growth strategy centered on retail services. Sergey Vlasov, the former Chairman of the Management Board of Dalnevostochnoye OVK, was invited to become CEO and took up a 10% stake. The following year the Bank adopted its current name as part of a re-branding strategy and senior management moved from Blagoveschensk to Khabarovsk, the capital of the Far East federal district.

The new strategy triggered rapid growth in all key financial measures. Orient Express Bank remains focused on the retail market, offers the full range of personal banking services. The strategy of the bank has changed a little and now the bank actively participates in M&A transactions. Fulfilling new strategy several banks were merged into Orient Express Bank (in 2009 OJSC �Etalonbank� (Moscow) and CJSC �Dvizhenie� (Tomsk), in 2010 OJSC �KAMABANK� (Perm) and OJSC �Rostpromstroybank� (Rostov-on-Don)). Moreover, in 2010 the Bank purchased 100% stock of Limited Liability Company �City Mortgage Bank� (Moscow) and 100% of Close Joint-Stock Company �Santander Consumer Bank� (Moscow).