MOSCOW, April 26 (Reuters) – Russia’s dominant lender Sberbank (SBER.MM), opens new tab on Friday reported an 11.3% increase in first-quarter net profit to 397.4 billion roubles ($4.32 billion) and sharply raised its retail loan growth forecast for the year.
Sberbank made record profits of 1.5 trillion roubles in 2023, a more than five-fold increase on the previous year, as Russia’s banking sector recovered from the impact of financial sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
The state-owned bank, which dominates Russia’s banking sector with around 110 million retail clients, this week announced plans to make a record annual dividend payment of more than $8 billion.
Sberbank is majority-owned by the state and those dividends make a sizeable contribution to Russia’s budget revenues, ultimately enabling the government to continue heavy spending, in particular on what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“We are observing strong growth for the start of the year in retail clients’ funds (2.4%), which forms a solid base for the development of the business in the future,” CEO German Gref said in a statement.
Source: REUTER
