OREANDA-NEWS.  July 24, 2014. Sviaz-Bank has totaled up its performance results over six months of 2014 according to the Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), judging by its key financial indicators – assets, equity, and profit – that all have grown since the year beginning.

The Bank’s management balance sheet showed 346.2 billion rubles in net assets on July 1, 2014, or 20.5% more than it did on the same reporting date last year.

The Bank had 41.9 billion rubles in equity (capital) at a capital adequacy of 12.06% on the reporting date (comfortably above 10% as a minimum required by the Bank of Russia). The Profil magazine put Sviaz-Bank in 20th place for equity and 22nd for assets in its rankings of 200 biggest Russian banks on June 1 of this year.

Over the six months of 2014, the Bank earned 840.6 million rubles in net profit, or twice as much as it did over six months of 2013. The Bank’s net interest income reached 5.2 billion rubles, and showed a net operational return of 5.9 billion rubles. The Bank’s profits rose in consequence of its active lending and deposit promoting policy.

The Bank had 145.3 billion rubles in its portfolio of all corporate loans, including loans to legal entities and self-employed entrepreneurs, 19%, or almost 23 billion rubles, more than it did at midpoint last year.

Over the six months of this year, the Bank made loans to the Interregional Distribution Grid Company (IDGC) of the Center and Volga Areas (OJSC), Rostelecom OJSC, Sibir Air Company (OJSC), Kristall PA OJSC, Altaivagon OJSC, Confectioners United LLC, Genser Service LLC, Salavatsteklo OJSC, Ussuri Balzam OJSC, and several other borrowers to the tune of almost 40billion rubles.

Lending to private customers showed the fastest growth as well. The portfolio of loans to private customers reached 56.6 billion rubles, 17.7 billion rubles, or 45.6%, more than it was at the halfway point of 2013. The proportion of mortgages rose over six months of 2014, so the Bank’s mortgage portfolio grew to 44.1 billion rubles, more by a factor of 1.47 than it was at midyear 2013. Acting jointly with the Morton Group of Companies, Sviaz-Bank offered socially oriented mortgages for the purchase of apartments in several of the developer’s projects in Moscow and suburbs at an interest rate of 9.5% per annum.

Deposits by legal entities and private individuals with the Bank had grown over six months. On July 1 of this year, legal entities had 193.5 billion rubles in the balances of their accounts, registering a growth of 25% or 38.3 billion rubles over the year. The funds accepted by the Bank on deposit from individuals rose by 35% over six months of 2014, to 31.8 billion rubles. The portfolio of deposits the Bank accepted from private customers reached 27.2 billion rubles. By July 1, Sviaz-Bank had issued more than 534,000 plastic cards (registering a 4.5% growth on the previous showing)

The Bank of Russia put Sviaz-Bank on its list of banks eligible to accept pensioners’ savings and savings placed by servicemen for the purchase of housing in savings accounts, including deposit accounts.

The Bank’s network of branches continues to expand. On June 10, a ceremony was held in Grozny, the central city of Chechnya, to mark the opening of Sviaz-Bank’s Chechen branch, its 52nd regional office in Russia. Yet another backup office was opened in Moscow to provide retail services to walk-in customers.

Sviaz-Bank has kept on developing its BLIZKO Payment System to expand its operations in Russia, CIS countries, Russia’s neighbors, and elsewhere. It launched, jointly with the Post of Russia, a project named Forsage to provide money transfer services in CIS countries. Money can now be transferred from over 25,000 offices of the Post of Russia in all cities and large rural communities in this country. This service is offered in partnership with Sviaz-Bank’s BLIZKO Payment System that operates offices in CIS countries that make and pay Forsage money transfers.

During six months of this year, Sviaz-Bank acted as manager and co-manager of six bond offerings of Russian issuers totaling 12.65 billion rubles at par. As an issuer itself, the Bank carried out a successful secondary offering of its Series 04 and BO-02 bonds it had bought back from its bondholders under the terms of buyback options, raising over 5 billion (5.39 billion) rubles. According to the Cbonds Investment Agency, Sviaz-Bank was eighth at midyear point among corporate sector managers (less its own issues), fifth among managers for financial sector issuers (less its own issues), and 11th among underwriters in the corporate and municipal sectors.
Presently, Sviaz-Bank works on in the retail, corporate, and investment areas of business, keeps a watchful eye on its expenses to enhance its efficiency, and follows the business strategy it has laid out.