UPDATE: Russian banks receive 352 bln rbl net profit in January–March

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MOSCOW, Apr 12 (PRIME) -- Russian banks received an overall 352 billion ruble net profit in January–March, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Vasily Pozdyshev said on Thursday at a panel meeting of the Association of Russian Banks.

“Profit for the first quarter amounted to 352 billion rubles, it is slightly higher than we saw in the first quarter of last year,” he said, adding that the regulator expects the sector to maintain the profit further.

Russian banks also raised provision of loans by 1% in March and by 2.2% in January–March. The figure is growing faster than in the same period last year, he said.

Crediting of individuals rose 3.3% in January–March, which is a bit too fast for comfort. “We welcome good dynamics of growth of mortgage lending, but a high speed of growth of unsecured consumer loans worries us a little,” he said, adding that the bank is now working on measures to discourage such a high growth of unsecured consumer loans.

Deposits of individuals with banks grew 0.5% in the first quarter despite a continuous long-term decrease of interest rates, he added.

Crediting of companies went up 1.8% in the period, and the portfolio of corporate loans exceeded 30 trillion rubles. “The increase in different sectors of the economy is obviously different. Still, the trend that we see as compared with the previous year is more positive and reassuring than worrying,” he said.

The only segment where crediting contracted in the first quarter is production of mineral reserves, an anomaly as provision of loans to the sector grew 24% in 2017, he said.

(64.0626 rubles – U.S. $1)

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