Page 88 - RusRPTMay21

8.0 Financial & capital markets 8.1 Bank sector overview
Banks remain in profit earning RUB205bn ($2.7bn) in March bringing the year to date cumulative profits to RUB578bn. The March result is better than the RUB186bn earned a year previously but slightly behind the c.RUB230bn earned in the previous two years.
On a cumulative bases the first quarter is almost exactly the same as the previous two years and well ahead of the the preceding three years. Banks are on course for a full recovery and should do as well as in 2019 or better, which was the first year of normal post-2014 oil shock growth.
The first quarter saw strong retail loan growth, with unsecured loan growth starting to gather pace, while corporate lending was up moderately.
Corporate lending has slightly slowed down compared to February. Wherein in the retail segment, both mortgages and unsecured loans continued to grow rapidly. Mortgage lending accounts for the bulk of retail loan growth as the housing market continues to recover on the back of the state’s extended mortgage subsidy programme.
88 RUSSIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com