The story
Founded by USSR State Bank in 1974.1
1974 - Donau Bank AG is jointly founded in Vienna by the USSR State Bank and the Foreign Trade Bank of the USSR.
1987 to 20 November 1990 - Donau Bank AG is headed by Andrey Akimov. From 1989 to 1991, Alexander Ivanovich Medvedev (Russian: Александр Иванович Медведев) was a director at Donau Bank and was the managing director of the Donau Bank's subsidiary "Inter Trade Consult GmbH" (Austria). It allegedly serviced very large debts of Bulgaria and, which the Austrian Die Presse wrote at the time, was "adherence to an overly expansive business strategy." In the spring of 1990, Bulgaria declared a moratorium on servicing its external debt.
1990 - SOVLINK-American Corporation (Russian: ИК «Совлинк»), which specialized in the oil industry, closely cooperated with TNK and was owned by CB Alba Alliance LLC (Russian: ООО КБ «Альба Альянс»), was established in New York by the American consulting firm Salomon Brothers, Sedgwick, Phibra Energy, plus the Soviet foreign Donau Bank and the state-owned Russian foreign economic association SovFinTrade (Russian: российским внешнеэкономическим объединением «СовФинТрейд»).
1992 - The Central Bank of the Russian Federation acquires 99.97% of the bank, the remaining 0.03% is retained by the Foreign Trade Bank of the USSR (Vneshtorgbank).
1997 - VTB acquires a 51% majority share in Donau Bank AG.
2005 - VTB acquires 100% interest in Donau Bank AG.
2006 - In the context of VTB’s international rebranding program, Donau Bank AG is renamed VTB Bank (Austria) AG.
2007 - VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG and VTB Bank (France) SA are placed under VTB Bank (Austria) AG and together form a subgroup of the VTB Group.
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2011 - Launch of VTB Direct Bank in Germany
2017 - 2018: VTB Bank (Austria) AG, VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG und VTB Bank (France) SA, were merged into the newly created VTB Bank (Europe) SE (Frankfurt), which operates under a single banking license. Since that restructuring, VTB Bank (Europe) SE has the branch in Austria.
From Wikipedia’s article on Donau Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3