Sberbank Asset Management, part of the Russian banking group Sberbank, has appointed Roman Filatov as managing director, head of equities portfolio management.

Filatov was recruited from IXIA Asset Management, where he had been a director and also managed a portfolio of Russian, US and European equities for private clients. Before this he was a director at ACCENT Investment Management.

In his new role Filatov will oversee Sberbank Asset Management’s equity portfolios, with particular focus on its largest equity mutual funds.

Sberbank joined forces with Troika Dialog to create Russia's largest universal banking institution at the start of the year. An “incremental” rebranding of Sberbank’s asset management, private banking and corporate and investment banking units is now underway, the firms have said.

In more recent developments, Sberbank hit the headlines at the start of this month when it announced that it would offer the top 100 clients of its Kazakhstani unit a Visa credit card made of solid gold and encrusted with a staggering 26 diamonds.