Sberbank showed profit – Newspaper Kommersant No. 209 (7410) dated 11/11/2022

Sberbank reported a profit in October and promised to publish monthly reports, albeit limited ones. But many banks are still not ready to disclose the absolute values ​​of financial indicators: only in the first half of the year, according to the Central Bank, the banking system of the Russian Federation showed 1.5 trillion rubles. loss.

Sberbank for the first time since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine returned to the disclosure of financial results. Based on the abbreviated form of reporting under Russian standards (RAS), in January-October 2022, the bank received more than 50 billion rubles. arrived. A year ago, Sberbank’s profit for the same period amounted to 1.05 trillion rubles.

Sberbank went into plus in October, analysts specify: in a month it earned 123 billion rubles. net profit. The Bank did not enjoy regulatory easing and reflected losses. There is no breakdown of expenses, but given the stability of operating expenses, “it is clear that profits were eaten up by reserves and losses from the depreciation of securities and other financial assets,” says Yury Belikov, Managing Director for Validation at Expert RA.

Sberbank’s assets show positive dynamics. According to the bank, its retail loan portfolio grew by 9% to RUB 11.6 trillion, while its corporate loan portfolio grew by almost 12% (excluding currency revaluation) to RUB 18 trillion.

By the end of the year, experts expect that the bank can earn 150-300 billion rubles. arrived.

The second largest bank, VTB, is still at a loss in January-October 2022, its head Andrey Kostin announced on November 10. The figures in VTB are not disclosed.

FC Otkritie (included in the top 10 in terms of assets), according to its head Mikhail Zadornov, earned 28 billion rubles in January-October 2022 according to RAS. net profit. A year ago, over the same period, the bank earned 74.5 billion rubles. If we talk about IFRS reporting, the group showed a loss in the amount of 6.8 billion rubles for the nine months of 2022. Basically, the loss is a consequence of relatively small assets frozen due to sanctions, loss of trading income, losses from derivative financial instruments and currency revaluation, as well as the result of realized interest rate risk, he listed. From the point of view of the latter factor, October is important, according to Mr. Zadornov, this is the first month when the banking system works with the cost of liabilities, which was before February 24, 2022.

The overall financial result of the banking system at the beginning of November is unknown. Of the other systemically important banks, only PSB told Kommersant that it “maintains profitability and efficiency thanks to a sustainable business model and careful risk management.”

Other banks are not yet ready to brag about the results. From the previously disclosed statements of the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International, it is known that in the first nine months of 2022, the Russian business brought €1.4 billion in profit, while the Italian Unicredit had a loss from the Russian business of €236 million.

The banking sector as a whole can complete the second half of the year with a positive financial result, but we are talking about the second half of the year, and not 2022 as a whole, Yuri Belikov from Expert RA believes. “The question of whether the result of the second half of the year will be enough to go into plus with the accumulated total since the beginning of the year remains open,” he says. credit institutions, including those included in the top 10, continue to enjoy the Central Bank’s indulgences.”

This means that the representativeness of the annual financial result will remain limited, the expert concludes. According to him, in favor of a pessimistic forecast (fixing the total loss in 2022) can speak the current reduction in the dynamics of issuance of loans, primarily in retail (see “Kommersant” dated November 9). Even a short-term stagnation in lending can significantly hit the net interest margin, Mr. Belikov emphasizes, since in the conditions of the volatility of liabilities, banks somehow support a liquidity cushion – non-performing assets.

Olga Sherunkova