Official statement: Republic of Azerbaijan has no access to personal information of VTB Bank (Armenia) customers

ArmInfo. Armenian Mass Media has repeatedly reported that the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani oil fund holds a 3% stake in VTB Bank (OJSC) ) has access to the personal information of VTB Bank (Armenia)  customers. In this light, VTB Bank (Armenia) has disseminated an official statement wherein it disclaims these reports.

According to the statement, the reports submitted to the shareholders and the Supervisory Board of VTB Bank do not contain any personal data on the customers (either corporate or privates ones). Personal information is stored strictly in line with the law on banking secrecy.

VTB Bank (OJSC) holds the 100% stake in VTB Bank (Armenia) CJSC, and 60.934.8% of the Bank's voting shares belong to the Russian Federation. Besides, among the shareholders of VTB Bank are private and institutional investors from Europe, U.S., and Armenia. Bank operates beyond politics and makes decisions basing only on the economic expediency.

As for VTB Bank (Armenia) branch in Stepanakert, NKR, it was suspended yet in 2008. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan became the shareholder of VTB Bank (OJSC) in 2013. "Consequently, there is no tied- up between these two events. The decision to close that branch was adopted just because the branch 'Artsakh' was not profitable. The decisions to open or close VTB Bank's branches are adopted exclusively on the basis of economic expediency and not any political reasons," the Bank says in the statement.

To note, VTB Bank (Armenia) joined VTB Group in April 2004 and is fully owned by VTB Group, the second biggest bank in Russia. VTB Bank (Armenia) is one of the leaders of Armenia's banking sector. It has 67 branches all over the country (the largest branch network in Armenia).