Overdue loans not likely to exceed 8% of VTB loan portfolio in 2009
MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) - Overdue loans are not likely to exceed 8% of VTB Bank's loan portfolio in 2009, VTB Chairman Andrei Kostin said at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
"The main problem for the banking sector today is overdue loans. Ours are increasing by several times, but we aren't planning for them to exceed 8% [of the total loan portfolio] this year," he said, noting that this would already be a very high level for VTB.
Kostin thanked the government for deciding to provide the bank with additional capitalization earlier. "We will complete it by October 1," he said.
He said the bank is currently stable and continues to earn profit from current operations, which have grown roughly 30% over the last year.
VTB posted net profit of 26 billion rubles in 2008, he noted.
"We won't have such [profit this year]. We expect, of course, to have an unprofitable year," he said.