The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
VTB Group, Russia’s second-biggest bank, boosted profit more than sixfold in the second quarter as the financial industry began to recover from a crisis.
Net income increased to 16 billion rubles ($250 million) from 2.5 billion rubles a year earlier, the lender said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.Banking industry profits in Russia are heading back toward levels last seen in 2014, according to a central bank estimate. The economy has shown signs of emerging from its longest recession in two decades and lenders margins have shown increasing margins. VTB, among the Russian banks targeted by U.S. and European Union sanctions over the Kremlin’s role in the Ukraine conflict, was hit hard last year by low oil prices and the ruble’s collapse.
Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest paid on loans, grew 65 percent from the second quarter of last year to 108.7 billion rubles. Provisions for loan losses expanded 20 percent to 30.3 billion rubles, which was still lower than the Interfax consensus estimate of 52 billion rubles.