Sberbank says expects its mortgage lending to soar by 80% in 2023

MOSCOW, Dec 6 (PRIME) -- Russia’s top bank Sberbank expects its mortgage lending to soar by 80% to 4.6 trillion rubles in 2023, but the market to cool down seriously soon, First Deputy CEO Kirill Tsaryov told reporters on Wednesday during the bank’s Investor Day.

“Mortgage issuance in 2023 will amount to 4.6 trillion rubles. Thus, the increase as compared with the previous year will amount to about 80%, while the increase as compared with 2021 will also be significant and stand at 60%,” he said.

He added that the bank has no plans to change the rates on its mortgage loans any time soon.

The bank also thinks that it has not violated the antimonopoly regulation in regards to the mortgage insurance, he said.

On Tuesday, the Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case against Sberbank and Sberbank Life Insurance on finding signs of an anti-competitive agreement between the organizations.

“We are constantly launching new products and improving the old ones with the scope of improving our services for our clients. The package ‘Domcklik Plus’ that includes the certificate of Sberbank Life Insurance is one of these new services. We don’t think that our package violates the antimonopoly legislation,” Tsaryov said, adding that the bank was yet to receive any documents from the antimonopoly watchdog.

He also said that Sberbank reduced its provision of consumer loans by 30% since the beginning of October because of tougher regulation from the central bank and the high key rate.

“The amount of disbursed consumer loans decreased by 30% in the fourth quarter in spite of a consistently high level of demand because of the increase of the key rate and of the introduction of restrictions on lending to clients with high debt burdens by the regulator,” he said.

The bank’s data shows that consumer loans were issued to 6.7 million Russians in January–November, up by 1.3 million people as compared with the same period of 2022. The combined amount of the loans grew by 62% on the year to almost 3 trillion rubles.

(91.5823 rubles – U.S. $1)

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