Russia's Sberbank Reports Record 2024 profit of $ 18.1 billion

By Elena Fabrichnaya and Alexander Marrow

Moscow (Reuters) – Russia's largest lender Sberbank reported a record gain of 1.58 trillion rubles ($ 18.1 billion) on Thursday, after corporate and retail loans had carried out well with steadily increasing interest rates to 21%.

The high tariff of the central bank has increased the net interest margins of the banks, but is so high that credit growth is slowly slow, since companies reduce the investments and rather keep individuals to deposit.

The profit rose by 4.8%compared to the previous year, said the bank.

“The Corporate Loan portfolio grew by 19% compared to the previous year to over 27.7 billion rubles,” said CEO Deutsch Gref in a statement. “The retail sports folio became moderate under pressure from high rates and stricter regulation and grew by 12.7%for the year, which corresponds to 18.1 trillion rubles.”

Netto interest income for 2024 reached 3 trillion rubles, compared to 17% compared to the previous year. The return on equity (ROE) for 2024 fell by 1.3 percentage points to 24%. In 2025, Bank Roe sees over 22%.

The Sberbank dominates the Russian banking sector with almost 110 million retail customers and more than 3 million corporate customers.

The sector's profit achieved a record of 4 trillion rubles last year, although the central bank warned that the profits will slide to 3 to 3.5 trillion rubles in 2025 when the credit risks grow and the edges are squeezed.

VTB Bank No. 2 No. 2 This week also reported the record win this week, but did not say that it would not recommend a dividend because high interest rates and new regulation dampened this year's profit prospects.

Gref said that global volatility could not guarantee that the state Sberbank will pay dividends for the next three years, but the bank would distribute 50% of the net profit to the shares planned for 2024 and offer an enormous thrust for Russia household income.

Sberbank throws itself as a technology company and has made high investments in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) because Russia is looking for technological sovereignty in view of the western sanctions against its actions in Ukraine.

Gref said that 2024 was an important milestone for Sberbank when AI integrated into more systems from the bank and developed the bank in technology areas faster than she could have imagined.

($ 1 = 87.5,000 rubles)

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya in Moscow and Alexander Marrow in London; Editor of David Goodman and Susan Fenton)