Russia eyes postal bank to rival Sberbank

MOSCOW Dec 18 (Reuters) - Russia plans to secure the future of bankruptcy escapee Svyazbank by turning it into a postal bank with twice as many branches as current largest lender Sberbank SBER03.MM.

The future of Svyazbank, which counts the Russian Post among its clients, was discussed at a recent board meeting of VEB, the government's bank and the distributor of state anti-crisis funds.

"At a meeting of the supervisory board of VEB on Dec. 17, 2009, the strategy of development for Svyazbank was approved, which features the creation of a Russian Federation Post Bank on the basis of Svyazbank and with the participation of Russian Post," VEB's press service said late on Thursday.

The board -- presided over by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- decided to form a working group to prepare by April 1 the necessary events for the creation of such a bank.

The Russian Post has 42,000 branches, employs 415,000 people and handles 190 million money transfer operations a year.

Sberbank in comparison has 19,050 branches, employs around 270,000 people and holds half of Russia's retail deposits.

Both companies plan job cuts. [ID:nLB226840] [ID:nGEE5AM0GT] (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; writing by Toni Vorobyova; editing by Simon Jessop)