The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fined VTB in the amount of USD5 million, CFTC reported in September, 2016. CFTC has found VTB Bank and VTB Capital liable for effecting dummy transactions involving Russian rouble futures.

VTB released a statement regarding the CFTC claims that read as follows, “The stock-exchange transactions, which have been investigated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, were executed in line with all the rules of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and there have been no allegations against the bank. About a year ago, the Commission filed a lawsuit against one of the Western banks charging it with serious violations for several transactions. Most likely, this precedent made the Commission review its practices of executing this kind of deals at the stock exchange and consequently impose a ban on these operations. This ban has applied to all of the banks working in the U.S.”

“Taking into consideration the fact that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had earlier allowed such transactions and that VTB cooperated fully with the CFTC, the bank was fined the minimum amount possible,” VTB pointed out.

VTB Bank ranks as the second largest Russian bank after Sberbank in terms of asset size. The government holds a 60.9-percent equity stake in the bank. VTB Group performs banking operations in Russia through one parent bank (VTB Bank) and six subsidiary banks (the largest of them being VTB 24, the Bank of Moscow, and TransCreditBank). VTB Bank’s international network numbers over 30 banks and financial companies in more than 20 countries of the world.

The IFRS net profit of VTB for the first half of 2016 was RUB15.4 billion (USD240 million), against a loss of RUB17.1 billion (USD268 million) the year before. Net interest income of the group increased by 88 percent to RUB207 billion (USD3.20 billion). The group’s loan portfolio decreased by 7.4 percent to RUB9,362.5 bi-llion (USD144.61 billion). Retail loans increased by 4.2 percent to RUB2,042.9 billion (USD31.55 billion). Deposits of clients increased by 8.1 percent to RUB7,859.1 billion (USD121.39 billion).

The RAS net profits of the VTB Group for the first half of 2016 increased by 88 percent to RUB39.826 billion (USD620 million) from

RUB21.055 billion (USD330 million) the year before. Pre-tax profits increased to RUB42.27 billion (USD650 million) from RUB21.567 billion (USD330 million) in the first half of 2015.