Russia could merge the sanctioned VTB Bank (public joint-stock company) (MISX:VTBR), Public Joint-Stock Company Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation and RUSSIAN NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK (Public Joint-stock Company) operating in the Crimea peninsula, Kommersant daily reported citing unnamed sources. Reportedly, Andrei Kostin, the head of Russia's second-largest state-controlled bank, the VTB Bank, requested Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to merge the banks and the initiative has already been approved by President Vladimir Putin. VTB and Otkritie are the most heavily sanctioned Russian banks amid Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, being put on the SDN list by the US and cut off from SWIFT by the EU. The rationale behind the potential merger is to cut on the costs and to bring a "large federal banking player to Crimea", Putin believes, sources told Kommersant.

Previously Putin urged recently sanctioned Russian banks and businesses to move to the annexed peninsula sanctioned since 2015 as they "have nothing more to lose" anymore.  Kostin also previously said that VTB is studying how to start Crimea operations, according to RBC business portal.