OREANDA-NEWS. On August 09, 2007 VTB Bank, UniCredit and Deutsche Bank signed a Cooperation Agreement setting their relationship under a joint Program for Russian mortgage securitization and refinancing, reported the press-centre of VTB.

For VTB Bank the Agreement was signed by Andrey Suchkov, Senior Vice President; for   UniCredit - by Fazel Ahmed, Head of Securitization in Central and Eastern Europe of HVB, and for Deutsche Bank - by Tim Nicole, Managing Director, Head of Securitization in Central and Eastern Europe, Near East and Africa.

The Agreement stipulates joint financing of the Program worth USD 2 billion by three banks within two years. 

The Program targets mid-sized banks, first of all, regional Russian banks with intensive mortgage business. Under the Program a special institution is to be established - a mortgage conduit. At  the first stage, the bank-participant shall sell its mortgage loans to the conduit. Thus, mortgage pools shall be accumulated. At the second stage, once the pool is sufficient enough, mortgages shall be securitized and offered to capital market investors. Participation in the project can help Russian banks increase their operating efficiency through accumulating assets in a single institution and raising funds to finance mortgage business from different capital market segments and in various instruments.