Alfa-Bank

History

1990s

• 1990 – Alfa-Bank founded as a partnership with limited liability by Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Fridman.
• 1991 – Licence to banking operations received from Central Bank of Russia and first corporate accounts open.
• 1992 – Central Bank grants more licences for broader activities. Alfa-Bank opens first nostro accounts in six foreign banks. First retail branch opens in Moscow.
• 1993 – Alfa-Bank becomes a member of Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. General license to banking operations received from Central Bank. Alfa-Bank starts dealing in government bonds.
• 1994 – Alfa-Bank becomes a member of MasterCard/Europay international credit card system and joins the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Pyotr Aven appointed as bank's president. Alfa-Bank becomes the first Russian bank to open a subsidiary in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
• 1995 – Euromoney ranks Alfa-Bank third in its category for "Best Russian Banks in 1995". Alfa-Bank joins Factors Chain International. A representative office opens in London, United Kingdom.
• 1996 – Alfa-Bank joins Euroclear Bank and Visa International. It becomes one of the three participants in the first Eurobonds issue by Russian government since the October Revolution. Alfa-Bank opens a branch in Nizhniy Novgorod.
• 1997 – Alfa-Bank draws a $40 million syndicated loan. Euromoney declares Alfa-Bank "The Best Bank in Russia in 1997". First credit ratings received from Moody's and Standard & Poor's. Alfa-Bank places its first issue of $175 million, 3-year Eurobonds, becoming the first privately owned Russian bank to issue Eurobonds. Branches in Saint Petersburg and Samara open. The value of total assets passes $1 billion.
• 1998 – Alfa-Bank is reorganized from a limited liability company into an open joint stock company. Euromoney ranks Alfa-Bank "Best Bank in Russia" for the second consecutive year. Alfa-Bank merges with Alfa Capital, then a sister company of Alfa Group. A subsidiary bank opens in Novosibirsk, Russia's third most populous city.
• 1999 – Euromoney and Global Finance name Alfa-Bank "Best Russian Bank" despite the financial crisis. Fourteen new retail branches and offices open across Russia.

  2000s

• 2000 – Alfa-Bank acquires a 76% stake in Kyivinvestbank. The Banker and Global Finance magazine name Alfa-Bank "The Best Russian Bank". Alfa Securities, a broker and a subsidiary, opens in London.
• 2001 – By the end of first quarter, the bank's loan portfolio reaches $1 billion; Alfa-Bank opens a subsidiary in New York City, Alfa Capital Markets, an NASD regulated company set up to provide brokerage and investment services in North and South America. Emerging Markets Investor and Global Finance name it "Best Bank in Russia". Alfa-Bank becomes the 100 percent owner of Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V. and thereby acquires a full banking licence in the European Union.
• 2002 – Gazprom and Alfa-Bank reach an agreement on strategic partnership. Together with Merrill Lynch, Alfa-Bank wins financial consulting contract from Unified Energy System. Fitch and S&P upgrade their credit rating on Alfa-Bank. Once again Global Finance magazine names Alfa-Bank "Best Russian Bank".
• 2003 – Unaudited financial statements reveal record high growth in profits in 2002. Alfa-Bank, in partnership with the Lauder Institute of the Wharton School of Business, establishes a new award for "Excellence in Foreign Investment", to be presented to foreign companies operating in Russia for weighty contribution to corporate governance and successful business operations. Alfa-Bank draws an $82 million unsecured syndicated loan, the biggest on record among private banks. S&P, Fitch, and Moody's upgrade Alfa-Bank's rating during the year.
• 2004 – Alfa-Bank tops the list of financial consultants by deals value, completing $8.9 billion worth of transactions in 2003. Alfa-Bank's loan portfolio grows by 52% year-over-year, reaching $2.8 billion. It wins a $10 million defamation settlement against the Russian newspaper Kommersant, which had published an article on financial difficulties at the bank, which suffered a substantial run on deposits and contributed to a mini banking crisis over the summer.
• 2006 – Alfa-Bank completes the country's first securitisation of diversified payment rights with a $350 million deal. Unaudited first quarter management International Financial Reporting Standards figures show total assets breaking the $10 billion mark for the first time in the company's history.
• 2007 – Alfa-Bank is raided by Russian police in September in connection with the closure of Sodbiznesbank in 2004. Fitch upgrades Alfa-Bank's rating.
• 2008 – Alfa-Bank seeks a $400 million government loan in October. It distributes 20,000 Aladdin eToken USB smartcard devices to its online customers. The bank acquires Severnaya Kazna, a major regional bank operating in the Urals region.
• 2009 – Fitch downgrades Alfa-Bank's rating.

  2010s and 2020s

• 2010 – Alfa-Bank launches a $1 billion 7-year Eurobond.
• 2011 – Alfa-Bank seeks to buy Bank of Moscow, but the sale goes to VTB Bank.
• 2012 – In cooperation with Euroset, Alfa-Bank launches a loyalty card credit programme.
• 2014 – The "Alfa-Amway" Russian loyalty card programme is created when Amway joined with Alfa-Bank.
• 2016–2017 – It is reported in several media outlets that there had been activity between computer servers belonging to Alfa-Bank and the Trump Organization, an accusation that has been discredited. The FBI investigated the activity in the context of links between Trump associates and Russian officials and concluded that this activity was not part of those links and that there might be "an innocuous explanation, like marketing email or spam". Through September 2021, U.S. government investigators had been unable to explain the activity, though a 2018 analysis had concluded there were "reasons to doubt that marketing emails were the cause". A Senate report accepted the FBI's assessment that the activity was "unlikely to have been a covert communications channel" but said there was no explanation for this "unusual activity." In May 2022, Clinton's former campaign manager said that Hillary Clinton had approved of a plan to pitch the now-discredited accusation to the media.
• 2017 – In March, Alfa-Bank is the target of Ukrainian protests.
• In July, BuzzFeed News reports that, from December 2014 to the summer of 2017, numerous suspicious money transfers were made between Paul Erickson's accounts, including Wells Fargo Bank accounts, an undisclosed law firm, the NRA of America, Jack Abramoff's son Alex and Abramoff's brother Robert's company Landfair Capital Consulting, which was founded in March 2017, and Maria Butina's Alfa-Bank account. Investigators from Wells Fargo reported these suspicious money transfers to the United States Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and to the FBI.
• In December, Alfa-Bank's wholly owned Dutch subsidiary, Amsterdam Trade Bank, is raided in connection with an investigation into possible money laundering.
• 2019 – According to IFRS Results for 2019, Alfa-Bank's total comprehensive income amounts to $1.03 billion. The bank's total equity increases to $8.1 billion. At the same time, net profit was only $704 million, almost half of 2018 – due to a radical increase in allowances for loan loss provisions.
• 2022 – Alfa-Bank made a deal with the Kazakh bank "CenterCredit", on the sale of a subsidiary bank "Alfa-Bank Kazakhstan", which fell under anti-Russian sanctions in March this year. In May, the Kazakh bank CenterCredit bought Alfa-Bank Kazakhstan. The new owner renamed the bank to Eco Center Bank. On May 18, 2022, Ruslan Vladimirov was appointed Chairman of the Board of Eco Center Bank.

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