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Bich Ngoc
VRB: 15 years a symbol of effective cooperation
VRB leadership receives emulation flag from BIDV at the bank's 15th anniversary ceremony
With the mission of becoming a symbol of effective and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and the Russian Federation, after 15 years of establishment and development, Vietnam Russia Joint Venture Bank (VRB) has transformed strongly, acting as a bridge to promote economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries. A symbol of cooperation VRB was launched on 19 November 2006 in Hanoi under the presence of high-ranking leaders of the two countries, expressing the goodwill of
the Government and the central banks of the two countries in promoting bilateral cooperation to new heights. The bank’s shareholding structure includes the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and Bank for Foreign Trade of Russia (VTB), with an initial charter capital of USD10 million. VRB was expected to become a bridge that provides financial and banking services to support cooperation in the fields of trade and investment, and a symbol of effective and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries. In the post-global economic and financial crisis at the end-2011, VRB's business activities faced great difficulties. Especially since 2014, VRB has faced difficulties due to the embargo imposed by the US and Western countries on the Russian Federation and related entities. Such embargos have been impacting VRB's activities in the current period. With
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B I D V review
the comprehensive support from BIDV in terms of mobilized capital, profitable asset portfolio, bad debt settlement, and governance capacity improvement, VRB has focused on implementing comprehensive restructuring to overcome the crisis. At the end of the restructuring period, VRB was lauded by the State Bank of Vietnam as one of the few banks that basically fulfilled the objectives set out in the restructuring period. In 2016, VRB launched a bilateral payment system between Vietnam and the Russian Federation, marking an important milestone of efforts in developing a local currency payment channel between the two countries, serving payment, economic and trade cooperation activities between the two countries. In the period of 2017-2021, with the determination to "promote the spirit of self-reliance, change for development", VRB actively reduced its dependence on the parent bank BIDV, and implemented a sustainable development strategy. With relentless efforts, VRB achieved remarkable results at the end of the period, particularly:
