Russia's Tinkoff rebranded as T-Bank, drops reference to founder's name
05/06/2024 09:49
LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Russian online lender Tinkoff
TCSG.MM has been rebranded to T-Bank, its owner said on
Wednesday, removing the reference in its name to founder Oleg
Tinkov in a move the company said would help international
expansion plans.
Tinkov, whose digital credit card company TCS Group Holding
is one of Russia's largest financial institutions, has been an
outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and President
Vladimir Putin. Tinkov was designated a 'foreign agent' by
Russia's justice ministry in February.
Tinkov's opposition to the invasion led Russia's government
to force him to sell his 35% stake in Tinkoff's owner - known
then as TCS Group Holding TCSq.L - to Russian billionaire
Vladimir Potanin, his lawyers have said.
"We want to get away from the familiarity that was once on
trend and replace it with something more concise and modern,"
T-Bank said.
The bank, one of Russia's 13 "systemically important"
financial institutions, said the change would take place
gradually and hoped its new brand was a more universal solution
that could help it grow overseas.
Tinkov renounced his Russian citizenship in October 2022,
saying he did not want to be associated with "fascism" and asked
the bank to stop using his name.
"I hate when my brand/name is associated with the bank that
collaborates with killers and blood," he said on Instagram in
November 2022.
T-Bank and fellow lender Rosbank are now controlled by
Potanin's Interros group, and an integration of the two banks is
in the works.
(Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
((alexander.marrow@thomsonreuters.com;))