OREANDA-NEWS. October 11, 2007. Q3 2007 was once again an extremely positive quarter for National Bank Trust (NBT) and its corporate and retail banking business. The bank continued its impressive growth rates and posted strong increases in its corporate, SME and retail loan portfolios. At the period ending September 30, 2007 the bank’s outstanding total corporate and SME loans were RUR18.1 bln reflecting a YTD gain of 39.1%. In September alone, the bank’s corporate and business lending activities increased 6.7% from the previous month even in light of the overall downturn in global and domestic financial markets.

During Q3 outstanding SME loans grew 31.5% with September showing an 11.0% month-on-month gain from August. This came on the back of previous monthly SME loan increases of 9.9% and 7.8% in August and July, respectively. The outlook for the remainder of the year also is positive for the bank’s corporate lending activities with October expected to be another good month. The bank is targeting a month-end outstanding corporate loan and SME portfolio of RUB18.7 billion reflecting 3.7% month-on-month growth during October and a YTD growth rate of 44.3%.

NBT’s retail lending business also showed continued momentum in Q3 2007 with a steady positive trend through the period. For September, the bank’s retail loan portfolio grew 6.9% after showing similar monthly gains in August (6.1%) and July (6.2%). Retail growth was driven by both consumer credit loans and auto loans, both which were up 7.5% and 4.4% accordingly in September. In addition, the bank’s mortgage portfolio posted strong Q3 results with three consecutive months of growth in mortgage related loans in excess of 37%. For the first nine months of 2007, the bank’s mortgage portfolio increased more than ten times to RUR424.4 million versus RUR32.1 million at FYE 2006. In total, outstanding retail loans were RUR21.7 billion at the end of Q3 2007 compared to RUR18.1 billion at the end of Q2 2007 representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 20.3%.

On the liability side of NBT’s balance sheet, the bank’s deposit base grew robustly during the three month period ended September 30th showing further confidence in the bank’s expanding franchise. Retail time deposits grew 14.6% quarter-on-quarter to RUR11.4 billion, while since the beginning of the year total retail time deposits have risen 37.3%. Corporate time deposits also posted strong growth of 23% versus the previous quarter and have grown 53.6% year to date. On a combined basis, NBT’s retail and corporate time deposits reached RUB21.3 billion at Q3 2007 versus RUB14.7 billion at FYE 2006 marking an impressive 44.4% rise in the bank’s fixed term deposit base. Taking into account the bank’s on-call deposits in addition to time deposits, NBT’s total deposits equaled RUR39.1 bln at the end of Q3 2007 up from RUR34.9 billion the previous quarter.

NBT will also continue to expand its regional banking network through the end of 2007. So far this year NBT has grown its national network 48% from 77 cities and 128 branches at the end of 2006 to 126 cities and 178 branches at the end of the Q3 2007. By year-end 2007 the bank plans to extend it’s reach to 160 cities and 200 branches.