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essentially pre-announced by management during the 3Q20 conference call.
After Yandex’s deal to purchase Tinkoff fell through, the Russian central bank (CBR) approached the tech firm about possibly buying Otkritie Bank. Otkritie was once Russia’s largest private bank, but facing a liquidity crisis in 2017, it was bailed-in and nationalized by the CBR. The CBR is now trying to get the bank off its hands. It plans to sell Otkritie to a private investor or via an IPO in 2021-22. Hoping to drum up some competition to Sberbank’s fintech dominance, the CBR turned to Yandex, which has its own fintech ambitions, as a potential buyer. But Yandex turned the offer down. Yandex reiterated that after being spurned by Tinkoff, it plans to develop its first financial product independently.
Tinkoff Bank has published standalone October and 10m20 RAS headline numbers. October saw a continuation of the recovery in loan growth that we saw in recent months, with 1.8% m-o-m gross loan growth, and 11% y-o-y growth. Elsewhere, retail account growth picked up after a slow September, adding 2.7% m-o-m and up 45% y-o-y. October net income of R2.4 bln brought 10m20 RAS earnings to R27.8 bln, up 10% y-o-y.
Sovcombank has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan’s Eurasian Bank to buy 100% in its Russian subsidiary, Sovcombank said in a statement on Friday without disclosing the sum of the deal. “Sovcombank and Eurasian Bank announce signing of a binding agreement on acquisition of 100% in a subsidiary bank in Russia from Kazakhstan’s Eurasian Bank,” the statement read. Co-owner and First Deputy CEO of Sovcombank Sergei Khotimsky said that the acquisition is an important step in development of the bank’s interests in the CIS states and work with a large Kazakh bank on implementation of joint projects. Sovcombank has no plans to buy assets in Kazakhstan, but wants to develop partnership relations between the two banks on servicing of large corporate clients in the two countries, he said as quoted by the bank.
8.2 Central Bank policy rate
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) at the last policy meeting of 2020 resolved to maintain the key interest rate unchanged at 4.25%. The regulator has previously kept the rate flat in September and October as well.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, although the CBR pledged to continue monetary easing to help COVID economic recovery, the analysts largely expected the key rate to remain flat as inflation in N ovember has breached the CBR's target of 4%.
Inflation is expected by the CBR to overshoot the expectations in 2020 overall at 4.6-4.9%. At the same time the CBR is alarmed over persisting inflationary
110 RUSSIA Country Report January 2021 www.intellinews.com
