Russian banks up business lending 1.9%, retail lending 2.3% in June - CBR
MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - Russian banks, excluding Sberbank of Russia , grew their combined portfolio of credits issued to non-financial organizations by 1.9% and that of credits to private borrowers by 2.3% in the month of June, the Central Bank of Russia reported on its website.
Aggregate bank assets expanded 1.4% in June, primarily as a result of the increased lending.
The NPL ratio rose 3.8% for corporate loans and fell 0.5% for retail loans. This increased the proportion of delinquent debt to 5.1% from 5.0% for the former loans and to 7.8% from 8.0% for the latter.
A substantial contribution to the increase in banking sector assets came from increases in funds banks placed in deposits with the Central Bank (up 90%) and on correspondent accounts with the CB (up 16.2%).
Banks invested 1.5% less in securities generally in June, with 3.1% less investment being made in debt obligations.
Lending organizations' resource base expanded in June on the strength of an inflow of client funds. The amount of organizations' funds in settlement and other accounts grew 3.8%, deposits by legal entities (not counting lending organizations) 2.6%, and deposits by private individuals 2.2%.
Russian banks, excluding Sberbank, earned combined pretax profits of 232.7 billion rubles in the first half of the year, roughly 50% more than the 154.8 billion rubles of H1 2010.