(13 February 2026 | Source: Telegram channel 'Exit to the Sea')
'Asia-Pacific Bank' (APB) in Russia has increased its net profit more than tenfold over five years — from 1.5 billion to 16 billion roubles. The bank’s assets grew from 134.5 billion to 338 billion roubles, allowing the regional institution to enter the top 30 largest Russian banks.
HOW THE INDICATORS HAVE CHANGED
According to APB's financial reports, the bank’s net profit in 2025 rose by 50%, while across Russia as a whole, the banking sector’s figure fell by almost 8%. Over five years, the bank’s assets increased from 134.5 billion to 338 billion roubles, enabling the regional institution to break into the top thirty largest Russian banks, reports the Telegram channel 'Exit to the Sea'.
APB is controlled by funds linked to the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The top 30 Russian banks also include subsidiaries of Austria’s Raiffeisen, Hungary’s OTP Group, America’s Citigroup and Italy’s UniCredit. Like APB, these banks are not under sanctions.
HISTORY OF BAILOUT AND LEGAL CASES
In 2018, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation suspected APB’s owners of creating a financial pyramid scheme and placed the bank under bailout administration. Co-owner Andrei Vdovin was accused of large-scale embezzlement and fraud. He was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. Vdovin had already left Russia.
In 2021, the Bank of Russia sold 100% of APB’s shares to Pioneer Capital Invest, which previously managed PJSC Quantum Mobile Bank. Later, both Russian banks merged under the APB brand.
ASSETS OF THE FAMILY FUND
In January 2022, it emerged that Pioneer Capital Invest’s total capital exceeded $7.8 billion. Its assets include the Jusan financial group, real estate, a private jet, US Treasury bills, government bonds of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as well as $3.4 billion in cash.
In 2023, the process of returning Jusan’s assets to Kazakhstan was resolved. Control over the assets was obtained by Galymzhan Yessenov, the former son-in-law of Akmetzhan Yessimov, while the Nazarbayev family received $127 million for assets valued at several billion dollars. A court case concerning Jusan Technologies continues in the UK, where three directors are accused of receiving bribes in approving the deal.
SANCTIONS AND CURRENT SITUATION
In January 2025, APB was included in a list of Russian entities that were to be added to the 16th package of European Union sanctions. Ultimately, almost all banks on that list were sanctioned by the EU, except for APB and 'Moskommertsbank', the former Russian subsidiary of Halyk Bank owned by Timur and Dinara Kulibayev.