Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprombank has decided to open a financial company in London, the bank's press service said Thursday. "To implement this decision, we need to obtain permission from the Bank of Russia and regulating bodies in Britain," the press service said. "We expect the process to be completed within 6-12 months." One of Russia's top three banks and a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP], Gazprombank expects its presence in London to secure more instruments on international financial markets. Ulrich Rolf Gerza, an executive vice president in the bank, is expected to become the head of the company. Before coming to Gazprombank, Gerza was managing director of the structured products business of Dresdner Kleinwort. Founded in 1990, Gazprombank, which has about 2 million retail clients and over 36,000 corporate clients, is one of the top five banks in Central and Eastern Europe, with assets totaling 1.088 trillion rubles ($43 billion) and equity capital of 88.3 billion rubles ($3.5 billion) as of April this year.