Russian investment bank KIT Finance has established a London office to service its clients and its expanding international activities. The bank, which has its origins in St Petersburg, has an existing joint venture asset management venture with Benelux bank Fortis. The London office of KIT Finance Europe is situated in the heart of the West End in St James's Square. Vladimir Tarasenko, KIT Finance's deputy general director said. "As we aim to grow our business at global markets and services for international clients to be in London is increasingly important for KIT Finance and especially for our brokerage operations." KIT is Russia’s biggest broker by volume of operations. The group is one of Russia's fast growing banks and last year broke into Thomson Financial's top five for advisory work on Russian mergers and acquisitions. It provides a wide range of services which include investment banking, brokerage, private banking and asset management.