OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2009. The CBR has released the banking sector statistics for October 2009. Most of the figures have been already been voiced by state officials, so were expected (and, therefore, are neutral for banking stocks). The key takeaways are as follows, reported the press-centre of VTB Capital.

- Both corporate and retail loan portfolios contracted at a slow pace, which is signal that it is still a problem for banks to find good borrowers. Banks’ fixed income portfolios grew 1.5% MoM and rouble-denominated instruments increased 3.7% MoM. However, this is a signal that the growth of this instrument for indirectly financing the real sector is moderating from its performance in September (+7.2% and +12.2% respectively).

- The share of overdue loans increased in October (as was announced before), but the rate of expansion is still lower than in 1H09, although the bottom has not been reached yet.

- Retail deposits increased further (up 1.4% MoM) with the share of rouble accounts growing slightly to 72% (from 71% in September). Meanwhile, corporate accounts slid 2.3% MoM, mainly due to the decline in current accounts balances.