OREANDA-NEWS. February 12, 2010. Sviaz-Bank has assessed its tentative performance results for 2009. The Bank managed to hold on to its customer base and even to expand it significantly to an extent that its portfolio of loans made to corporate customers rose steeply to 138 billion rubles as of December 31, 2009, reported the press-centre of Sviaz-Bank.

The total balance in the accounts of its customers among legal entities reached 47 billion rubles. The vigorous growth of transactions with retail customers last year produced a total balance of 6.2billion rubles in their accounts, or 41% more than at the start of 2009, and 2.8 billion rubles was issued in loans to them.

At the end of the year (all figures are given as of December 31, 2009, except for transactions closed after the accounting date), Sviaz-Bank had 114.9 billion in net assets, 23.4 billion rubles in own funds (equity capital), and a capital adequacy rate of 24.08% (over twice the minimum 10% required by the Bank of Russia).

In 2009, Sviaz-Bank floated two additional issues of shares to raise 70 billion and 20 billion rubles, respectively. The Bank’s authorized capital has been brought up to its equity capital level, and now stands at 19.026 billion rubles.

On December 29, 2009, Sviaz-Bank borrowed a total of 16 billion rubles from Vnesheconombank in interbank loans. At this time, it has sent documents to the Bank of Russia to obtain its approval for the borrowed funds to be classified as subordinated loans in accordance with its requirements that these funds be added to Sviaz-Bank’s supplementary capital.

The measures taken last year yielded an operational profit (less growth in reserves against possible asset-related losses) of 8.65 billion rubles for the Bank.

The Bank attained these performance results in 2009 by developing business areas such as lending to corporate customers, retail transactions, mortgages and consumer credit for corporate customers’ employees, and investments, among others.

Since the start of 2009, Sviaz-Bank provided more than 22 billion rubles in funds to finance telecommunications and power companies as a privilege it won through competitive bidding and in public auctions. It issued loans to STC OJSC, Dalsviaz OJSC, Central Telegraph OJSC, VolgaTelecom OJSC, Uralsviazinform OJSC, Sibirtelecom OJSC, Northwestern Telecom OJSC, CenterTelecom OJSC, MRSK Northwest OJSC, MRSK Center & Volga Valley OJSC, MRSK Siberia OJSC, MRSK Volga OJSC, TransTeleCom CJSC, TGK-14 OJSC, and the Siberian Coal Energy Company, OJSC, among others. Auction results added many federal municipal entities, in particular, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Omsk Region, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, and many more, to the list of the Bank’s borrowers. The Bank lent over 28 billion rubles in loans to legal entities and municipalities in 2009. Today, the Bank’s open lending limit to its borrowers is over 12 billion rubles, and agreements for over 14 billion rubles more are at the formalization stage.

The Bank kept on diversifying its corporate customer base, offering banking services to enterprises in other industries, in particular, power, metallurgy, food, coal, oil and gas, petrochemicals, construction, and aviation. At present, these customers have a share of nearly 25% in the Bank’s total liabilities.

In 2009, Sviaz-Bank launched, with assistance from its local branches, joint projects with Vnesheconombank, its majority shareholder, in Krasnodar Territory, Primorye Territory, and Rostov, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk, and Tyumen regions.

Sviaz-Bank has issued over 600,000 plastic cards, not least because of the successful implementation of its wage payment and social benefit projects.

In June 2009, the Bank introduced a new line of deposit accounts for individuals, namely, the Sberegatelny Rezerv (Savings Reserve), Popolnyaemy Rezerv (Increasable Reserve), Upravlyaemy Rezerv (Manageable Reserve), VIP Reserve, and 13-ya Pensiya (Pension 13).

In September, the Bank initiated a Mortgage Program for Individuals to operate in Russia’s regions. In December of that same year, the Bank lowered interest rates on ruble-denominated mortgages to between 9.5% and 11.43% per annum.

The Bank invested over 27 billion rubles in the IPO primary market for bonds floated by companies of the real sector of the economy and member regions of the Russian Federation since the start of the year. It gained further income from operations in the stock market. In 2009, the Bank managed sixteen bond issues of a total par value of 26 billion rubles. It also acted as agent to back up Northwestern Telecom OJSC, Pava OJSC, Sibirtelecom OJSC, STC OJSC, Uralsviazinform OJSC, and Paterson-Invest LLC, among others in fulfilling their obligations.

Sviaz-Bank’s affiliate network comprises 49 regional branches and two subsidiary banks. In 2009, Sviaz-Bank opened a branch in Stavropol and a backup office of the Bank’s branch in Krasnodar, with a priority of providing banking services to projects financed by Vnesheconombank in preparation for the Olympic (Winter Games) in 2014.

On December 17, 2009, Vnesheconombank’s Supervisory Board approved Sviaz-Bank’s development strategy focused on the establishment of a Postal Bank of the Russian Federation by Sviaz-Bank and FSUE Post of Russia.