Page 70 - RusRPTSept19

8.1.4 NPLs
8.1.7 Banks specific issues
The share of overdue loans in the retail portfolio was unchanged at 4.9% in July. The corporate overdue ratio grew to 8.1% from 7.9% in June.
Russian state development bank VEB.RF (former Vnesheconombank) plans to buy into the Blagosostoyanie non-state pension fund (NPF) in the next month or two, the head of the institution Igor Shuvalov told the press as cited by Vedomosti daily on August 30. The $6bn NPF in one of the largest in the country was the pension fund of Russian Railways (RZD), until Gazprombank bought 50% minus one share from RZD. Other Gazprom- affiliated pension assets include Gazfond, SOGAS, and Lider. As reported by bne IntelliNews, while NPFs used to cluster around private financial groups, the banking sector clean-up shook the market and shifted the bulk of pension savings to state and quasi-state groups. Currently four largest state-affiliated NPF groups (assets over RUB500bn or $7.5bn) already account for 77% of all pension fund assets. According to Shuvalov, Russian Railways (RZD), VEB.RF and Gazprombank will be the main shareholders in Blagosostoyanie, boosting the portfolio of RUB1.7 trillion of pension savings of 39mn people already held by VEB.RF.
The Central Bank of Russia estimates its losses from the banking sector clean-up at RUB0.75 trillion - RUB1.44 trillion ($11.5bn-$22bn), Vedomosti daily said on August 6 citing the deputy head of the CBR Vasily Pozdyshev. The estimates are much lower than the previous unconfirmed figure of $40bn that the CBR spent only on bailing out country's major private banks Financial Corporation Otkritie, Binbank (aka B&N Bank) and Promsvyazbank since they
70 RUSSIA Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com