Timeline: 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 (
GKOs and OFZs). •
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 (S&P). 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 (later renamed "
Alfa-Bank").
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 (now
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)) 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 (the bank's loan portfolio increases 70% to $1.4 billion, assets surge by 51%, while net income rises by more than a third). 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. • 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 (FinCEN) and to the FBI. •
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 (a subsidiary of the Russian Alfa-Bank, which at that time was under the sanctions of the UK, the EU and the USA). 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. ==Charity==