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which non-residents can open bank accounts.
If Russian tourists can no longer use Mir abroad, many will have no other option apart from to use cash in destinations like Egypt and Turkey.
The portfolio of mortgage loans of Russian banks will rise by 15% by the end of 2022 to RUB14.8 trillion ($240bn), hitting a fresh all-time high, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s second-largest lender VTB Anatoly Pechatnikov said on Monday.
"VTB projects that by the end of 2022 the mortgage portfolio in Russia considering the acquired rights and securitization may rise by 15% by the end of 2022, reaching RUB14.8 trillion, which will be an all-time record," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
The banker expects the mortgage lending market to continue developing fast. "As a result, even this year the rates of mortgage loans provision will become quite high in Russia, though lower than in the record 2021. According to VTB’s projections, mortgage sales of Russian banks by the end of the year may reach RUB4.5-4.6 trillion," he added.
That said, the market of unsecured loans (consumer loans and car loans) in Russia has been developing slower this year than last year, mainly due to a decrease in sales in the first half of 2022 amid high rates, Pechatnikov noted.
Russia’s Finance Ministry has proposed privatising pension savings,
allowing the citizens to invest their savings as they please in a bid to support the pension and insurance market with liquidity, Vedomosti daily reported citing the memo prepared by the FinMin and the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) for the notorious closed-door economic strategy meeting of August 30. To remind, after his re-election in 2018 President Vladimir Putin carried out a long overdue and unpopular pension reform, extending the retirement age. But the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR) still largely depends on state support. It took a hit during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and still fails to provide much-needed long-term finacial resources to the economy. Alarmed by the potential fallout from the military invasion of Ukraine the government has already attempted to optimise the pension system, by ordering the merger of the Pension Fund and the social security fund by the beginning of 2023.
Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade is proposing a new type of industrial mortgage loans carrying a discounted 3% rate of annual interest for innovative technology companies and 5% rate for other corporate borrowers, Vedomosti daily reported citing a letter of the Deputy Minister Alexei Besprozvnykh to the Ministries of Finance and Economic Development. In 2020 and 2021, fuelled by strong state support, the mortgage market expanded by 25% and 30% respectively. And although the Russian
107 RUSSIA Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com