OREANDA-NEWS. April 02, 2014. Sviaz-Bank (Vnesheconombank Group) is firmly in fifth place in the rankings of Russian mortgage banks. This time, the Expert RA Rating Agency has placed the Bank fifth among the Top 20 Russian banks in the amount of mortgages they issued in 2013.

In 2013, Sviaz-Bank issued 17.7 billion rubles in housing mortgages, up from 14.4 billion rubles it issued in 2012 (less loans it made under the Large Mortgage Loans program).

“In a turnaround from 2012, when lending rates were falling each quarter in comparison to the same period in the year before, the market picked up somewhat in 2013, from 25% in the first quarter to 34% in the fourth. The turnaround was caused by lower interest rates and softer terms for borrowers all through the year, which pushed the average rate charged on mortgage loans from 12.8% on May 1, 2013 down to 12.1% on January 1, 2014,” the rating agency’s analysts say.

“Indeed, we saw demand for our mortgage products growing from early to late 2013 and our mortgage portfolio growing at 10% to 15% from one quarter to the next, and, as a result, our standing in the mortgage market getting stronger. We put this steady growth to the down payment declining to 10%, interest rate discounts allowed to customers with favorable credit histories, the age ceiling raised to 65 years on mortgage repayment date, the effective term of the Bank’s mortgage issue decision extended to four months, the military mortgage loans put on the primary real property market, and the launch of new mortgage programs,” said Olga Oleinik, Vice Chair of Sviaz-Bank’s Management Board. “These and other growth factors help the Bank to stay put among the top five leading mortgage banks. We have plans to raise the total amount of loans to 20 billion rubles toward the end of 2014, provided, of course, that the market remains as favorable as it has been until now.”