MTS-Bank is the first Russian market participant to open a branch in Dubai. This significantly expands the possibilities for operations compared to a representative office. Business in the UAE, which has become a popular destination among Russian businessmen and tourists after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and mobilization, is also being developed by other Russian structures, including developers and retailers. According to experts, MTS-bank will develop not only settlement operations in Dubai, but also other areas.
Two sources of Kommersant in the financial market said that MTS-Bank (owned by the mobile operator of the same name, which is part of the AFK Sistema group) plans to open a branch in Dubai. This will be the first branch of a Russian bank in the UAE.
According to one of the interlocutors of Kommersant, the bank has already received the permission of the local regulator, now it needs the approval of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Kommersant did not respond there).
Russian banks very rarely opened branches in foreign countries. So, Sberbank has a branch in India, and it is planned to open a second one in 2023, said the first deputy chairman of the board of the bank, Alexander Vedyakhin. VTB has two branches — in India and China. PSB has had a branch in Cyprus since 2002, but in 2021 it handed over a local banking license and is now “implementing measures aimed at completing the functioning of the branch and its subsequent closure.”
Representative offices are opening much more often, now there are several dozen of them in general. Sberbank has a representative office in the UAE (Abu Dhabi). But, one of the bankers explained, the representative office has the right to provide only consulting services, whereas the branch has the right to banking operations (issuing loans, accepting deposits, maintaining accounts, asset management, etc.).
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