Sberbank still has liquidity surplus - Gref
MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - Sberbank still have a liquidity surplus, the bank's CEO Herman Gref told reporters.
"Banks have two woes: the first is a liquidity shortfall and the second is a liquidity surplus. We are currently in the second situation, but we know that very often this situation ends quickly. The economy starts to grow, and liquidity is insufficient," Gref said.
So far Sberbank is not planning to use the 50 billion rubles it can draw under an agreement with the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML).
It was reported earlier that Sberbank and mortgage agency Fabrika MS, an AHML subsidiary, signed a purchase-sale agreement on a pool of mortgage loans totaling 50 billion rubles.
"This is not an issue of yields, but of hedging the portfolio risk using securitization instruments. Given the need, when demand for liquidity arises, this is a refinancing opportunity," Gref said, adding that Sberbank would not resort to using this instrument as a source of refinancing for now. "But it creates the opportunity for us to convert this instrument into liquidity at any moment," Gref said.
Throughout 2016, Sberbank's management had repeatedly announced that the bank had sufficient liquidity or even an excess amount of liquidity, at the same time, the Russian Central Bank forecast the emergence of a liquidity surplus in the banking system in general in early 2016.
"I would say that we currently have no problems with insufficient liquidity, we currently have a problem of excessive liquidity," Gref had said in November.