09 September 2013, 00:00

The reserve played up the profits

Sberbank had a profitable August - the bank earned 33.5 billion rubles, reducing contributions to reserves by three times Natalia Biyanova

In July, the bank alarmed the market with a sharp increase in the cost of risk (the ratio of accrued reserves to portfolio) - 228 basis points (2.28%). This was the highest figure since 2011 and led analysts to assume that the state bank was expecting loan losses. However, in August, Sber reduced the cost of risk to “moderate 0.76%,” Alfa Bank analyst Marina Karapetyan points out.

Sberbank earned 33.5 billion rubles in August. net profit, follows from its Russian reporting. This is 18% more than in July, and almost a quarter than in August 2012. The increase in profit is due to low contributions to reserves, Citi analysts said.

This influenced the financial result: “Profit growth in August was due to a strong decrease in contributions to reserves - 6.8 billion rubles. versus almost 20 billion in July,” says Karapetyan. Then the senior vice-president of the state bank, Anton Karamzin, clarified that the bank mainly created reserves for corporate loans: in addition to reserves for new loans, the growth of deductions was affected by the weakening of the ruble - the bank had to create additional reserves for foreign currency loans, in addition, “it reflects the trend of slowing development economy of the country." Karamzin assured that the contribution of retail to the July growth of reserves was insignificant.

Karapetyan notes that in July Sberbank was conservative in terms of reserves, but in August a “psychological factor” could have worked: at the end of the month the state bank published IFRS results for six months, which turned out to be more modest than expected, and Sberbank President German Gref was forced to clarify the forecast for annual profit. Instead of the previous plan of 370-390 billion rubles. he is now going to earn 370 billion “plus or minus 2%.” “Probably Sberbank wants to show the market that the situation is leveling out and profits are growing,” Karapetyan believes.

The reduction in contributions to reserves is not critical for the state bank. “The volume of reserves accumulated since the beginning of the year is 1.1% of the loan portfolio - an adequate level of reserves for Sberbank,” Karapetyan points out. However, against the backdrop of a deteriorating situation in retail lending, many banks are increasing reserves for possible losses, and Sberbank, on the contrary, has reduced it - this is “somewhat alarming,” especially considering the high growth rates of its retail portfolio, the analyst admits.

Since the beginning of the year, Sber's retail portfolio has grown by 18% (+3% in August) to RUB 2.98 trillion. But corporate lending, after a revival in July, slowed down again: growth in August was 0.8%, since the beginning of the year - 3.5% (to 7.7 trillion).

For the second month in a row, funds in the accounts of corporate clients are also decreasing - by 1.6% (to RUB 3.1 trillion). Retail deposits for the month increased by 0.4% to RUB 7.2 trillion.

The quality of the loan portfolio is stable, as indicated in Sberbank’s comments to the financial statements: in August, the share of overdue debt decreased from 2.7 to 2.5%. The press service did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.