Page 74 - bne IntelliNews monthly country report Russia February 2024

Sberbank plans dividend payments at the level of 50% of net profit within its new three-year strategy, Chief Executive Officer Herman Gref said at an investor day. Russia’s top lender paid record high dividends in the amount of 565bn rubles ($7bn) for 2022. "Within three years we will ensure high return on equity, which should be above 22%. We are to ensure capital adequacy ratio (N20.0) above 13.3%. And we are to ensure a high level of dividends, at 50% of our net profit," he said.
Consumer loans extended by Sber in the fourth quarter of this year decreased by 30%, First Deputy CEO Kirill Tsaryov said on December 6. "The volume of consumer loans extended in the fourth quarter went down by 30% despite the stable level of demand as a result of the key rate hike and restrictions on extension of loans to clients with high debt burden imposed by the regulator," he told reporters on the sidelines of an investor day. The volume of consumer loans extended by the lender year-to-date has almost reached 3 trillion rubles ($32bn), a 62% rise compared with the same period last year, Tsaryov added. "Some 6.7mn clients of the bank were granted consumer loans in 11M 2023, which is 1.3mn higher than in 11M 2022," he said.
8.1.8 Bank news
Biden administration strengthens sanctions on Russia, targets financial backers of war effort. The White House said the executive order would expand sanctions authority over any financial institutions "determined to have conducted or facilitated any significant transactions...or provided any services" for already sanctioned individuals or companies involved in Russia's military-industrial complex.
UK sanctions Russia's Novikombank. The U.K. extended its sanctions list to include Russia's Novikombank, a bank owned by the Russian state conglomerate Rostec, the U.K. government announced on Dec. 15.
Austria sought to have Raiffeisen Bank International, the biggest Western bank in Russia, struck off a Ukrainian blacklist in return for signing off fresh European Union sanctions on Russia in December, according to Reuters. Austria and the bank wants it to be taken off a Ukrainian list dubbed "international sponsors of war" - which sets out to shame companies doing business in Russia and supporting the war effort by, for instance, paying taxes. Although Austria publicly supports Ukraine, several officials who spoke to Reuters have said they are reluctant to completely sever decades-old ties with Russia, thinking it will still be possible to restore relations. Earlier in October, Austria's foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, openly criticised that blacklist as arbitrary at a meeting of European ministers in Kyiv, said one person briefed on those discussions.
74 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com