Bank for Foreign Trade of the USSR

Vneshtorgbank, the commercial credit institution providing credit for USSR foreign trade, currency operations, and settling of accounts on exports and imports of goods and on rendering of services. It began to operate in 1924 on the base of the reorganized Russian Commercial Bank, which was created as a joint-stock company in 1922.

The USSR Vneshtorgbank is a joint-stock company operating on the basis of a charter. Among its stockholders are the USSR State Bank, the USSR Ministry of Finance, the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade, the USSR State Committee of the Council of Ministers on Foreign Economic Relations, the USSR Foreign State Insurance Committee, the USSR Ministry of the Merchant Marine, the USSR Construction Bank, the Central Russian Consumers’ Union, the foreign-trade amalgamations Exportles (Lumber Export Agency), Soiuzpromexport (AU-Union Industrial Export Agency). Tekhmashimport (Technical and Machinery Import Agency), Soiuzpushnina (Ail-Union Fur Agency), and others. For its clients and correspondents, the bank carries out cash, letter-of-credit, and money-order commissions involving payment and credit operations on the export and import of goods and the rendering of services, as well as handling nontrade payments abroad and from abroad; performs operations involving promissory notes and bills of exchange; undertakes guarantees on monetary obligations in favor of Soviet and foreign legal entities; purchases and sells foreign currency, payment documents, and funded paper issued in Soviet and foreign currency; carries out operations with travelers’ checks; accepts foreign currency, precious metals, securities and other valuables for safekeeping from clients; and carries out other banking operations. The bank has about 1,200 correspondents in more than 90 countries of the world (as of Jan. 1, 1969). At the beginning of 1969 the joint stock totaled 300 million rubles. The balance of the bank on Jan. 1, 1969, was 6,308 million rubles (as against 5,383 million rubles on Jan. 1, 1968), the sum of credits granted in various forms was 4,815 million rubles (as against 4,095 million rubles on Jan. 1,1968), and the sum of funds attracted by the bank for current and other accounts was 4,625 million rubles (as against 3,933 million rubles on Jan. 1, 1968). The net profits of the USSR Vneshtorgbank in 1968 amounted to 29.9 million rubles, as against 27.1 million rubles in 1967.