VTB to maintain corporate lending market share in medium term
ST. PETERSBURG. June 20 (Interfax) - VTB plans to maintain its share of the corporate lending market in Russia in the medium term and grow slightly faster than the market average, First Deputy President Yury Solovyev said in an interview with Interfax on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
VTB has so far posted good growth in 2013, faster than the market average, he said. "In the medium term we would like to maintain market share, at a minimum," he said, adding that he hoped that growth in corporate lending would slightly outpace the market.
Demand for loans in the corporate segment has declined somewhat. "At present our pipeline is quite strong. It is slightly behind last year's volume, but overall is demonstrating fairly robust growth," he said.
Later VTB President and CEO Andrei Kostin told journalists that VTB wanted growth in corporate lending to outpace the market, although he did not say by what margin. "We will see how the market is," he said.
The picture will not clear up before September, Kostin said, since the bank is beginning discussions on its new three-year strategy.
Asked what the bank would do to promote corporate lending, he said: "If other banks, say, Sberbank of Russia , lower rates, if the price of financial resources declines, we would naturally have to respond."
"In principle it is quite clear that a decline in ruble rates is underway, and we are actively participating in that process," he said.
Kostin said loan interest rates needed to come down but that it would require a common effort. "First and foremost, the Central Bank must revise the policy is has conducted in recent years, the policy of expensive money and lower lending than the banks are capable of, because the Central Bank dampened tariff increases and bad harvests with reductions in the money supply, at the cost of less lending. Now the government is focused on tariffs, they will only grow inline with inflation, and there is a chance to ease fiscal policy. In that context, we believe there are grounds for a trend toward lower rates," Kostin said.
