Russky Standart raises consumer credit’s spirits

In the sober world of finance, naming a bank after a famous vodka seems like suicide, but not in Russia. In 1999 Roustam Tariko, owner of Russia’s leading vodka brand, Russky Standart, decided to open a bank with the same name.

“The professional bankers we hired to run the bank hated the name. ‘You can’t name a bank after a vodka,’ they said. It is not the proper image,” says Tariko, sitting on a leather sofa in his minimalist office near Russia’s White House.