PSB arranges branches – Newspaper Kommersant No. 41 (7486) dated 03/13/2023

According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the number of offices of Russian banks operating in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions exceeded 260. But the expansion is not symmetrical: in February, for example, 26 branches were opened in the DPR and LPR, and not a single one in the other two regions. . Basically, the development of the network occurs at the expense of Promsvyazbank (PSB), also offices are opened by TsMRBank. PSB says they will continue to expand the network. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation called the launch of mortgages one of the key tasks for banks in these regions.

In February, 26 bank branches appeared in the DPR and LPR, according to the data of the Central Bank, their total number reached 194. In Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the number of branches did not change and amounts to 33 and 23 branches, respectively. Since the beginning of March, more than 10 branches have been opened, and now their total number is 262. The Central Bank began publishing statistics for these regions from November 2022.

The growth in February is explained solely by the expansion of the PSB network. They clarified that, in fact, 29 new offices were opened in the DPR and LPR last month (probably, several of them were formally reflected in the statistics either in March or January). “Currently, PSB is the only bank providing comprehensive financial services in new territories,” the bank emphasized.

The rapid growth of the network is explained, among other things, by the receipt of PSB from state-owned banks in the DPR and LPR. The fact that the organizations of these regions performing the functions of the Central Bank will be transferred to the PSB became known from the decree of Vladimir Putin, published at the end of November 2022. But, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, PSB Donetsk LLC and PSB Lugansk LLC, whose authorized capitals amount to 4.1 billion and 2.88 billion rubles. accordingly, appeared in the structure of the bank only on February 10, 2023. In February, PSB explained that due to the accession of state-owned banks, the network in the DPR and LPR would exceed 350 offices, and the client base would amount to about 3 million citizens and over 17 thousand corporate clients.

In October 2022, it became known that another Russian credit institution, TsMRBank, also began work in the DPR and LPR. In total, according to the TsMRBank website, it has seven branches in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions: in Donetsk, Makeevka, Lugansk, Berdyansk, Melitopol, Starobelsk and Volodarsky. Only in March, TsMRBank opened two branches, PSB – ten and plans to launch new ones before the end of the first half of the year. When opening new offices, the main expenses are staff salaries and the cost of renting space, notes Alexei Voylukov, vice president of the Association of Banks of Russia.

However, other commercial banks do not dare to enter the regions where hostilities continue. Sources of Kommersant in the market believe that even credit institutions already under blocking US and EU sanctions see high risks in their work in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, related both directly to hostilities and to the reduction or stagnation of incomes of the population and business. Among the most pressing problems of the financial system of these regions, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors names too few ATMs, especially given the commitment of the local population to the use of cash. Since the beginning of 2023, the Ukrainian hryvnia has not been accepted on the territory of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, its circulation has been discontinued. Citizens can exchange it for rubles at bank branches.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation considers the launch of mortgages in these territories to be a priority issue. “The task is to have the first mortgages and loans issued by the summer in new regions, this is our priority,” Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said in February. Residents of the regions will have access to preferential mortgages at 2% per annum (the resolution on this was signed at the beginning of the year). Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin specified that there would be no mass issuance yet, the bill would go to thousands of loans.

At the same time, the main problem of the development of lending in these regions remains unresolved – the lack of information about borrowers in the Bureau of Credit Histories of the Russian Federation (BKI), which does not allow assessing the risks of non-repayment of funds. But the base can be developed only by issuing loans. As Aleksey Volkov, Marketing Director of the National Bureau of Credit Histories, emphasized, according to the law on credit histories, lenders (banks, MFOs, CPCs) are required to transfer to the CBI information on all loans and loans issued to both individuals and legal entities.

Olga Sherunkova