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" [trs. 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 (now known as MDM Bank) 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, including a sixty-fold increase in assets since mid-2005 (from R0.5bn to R32.6bn).

Orient Express remains focused on the retail market and offers the full range of personal banking services. It also remains part of the informal banking alliance1 headed by MDM Bank, within which it is second only to MDM Bank itself in assets.