Russian banking giant VTB Group has become the fourth company to receive a license from the Bank of Russia to operate a retail forex brokerage serving Russian traders.
The Bank of Russia has announced that it has issued a professional securities market participant license to VTB subsidiary VTB 24 Forex, effective September 1.
VTB is the second largest bank in Russia, after Sberbank. We had reported back in February that VTB was setting up VTB 24, with the intention of providing retail forex trading services.
Under Russia’s new Forex Law, which came into effect as of January 1, 2016, all brokers offering forex trading to retail clients in Russia must have (or have applied for) a license to do so from the Bank of Russia.
However Russia’s central banking authority has been quite stingy in handing out the licenses. VTB’s is just the fourth license granted to date, following FINAM Forex, TeleTrade and TrustForex. A number of the leading brokers serving the Russian language market have been rejected so far, including the largest two – Alpari and Forex Club.