OREANDA-NEWS. In 2013 the Sberbank Group's trade finance and documentary business did record volumes, amounting to about RUB 1.3 trln. A steady growth trend continued in the first quarter of 2014, operations volumes increased by 20% compared to the same period last year and amounted to about RUB 350 bln. Head of Sberbank CIB's Trade Finance and Correspondence Relations Division Andrey Ivanov made this announcement at today's press briefing.

In 2013 the documentary business exceeded RUB 1.1 trln; service transactions in the Russian Federation showed the strongest growth. In 2013 local letters of credit reached a record RUB 100 bln, exceeding the 2012 figure by 2.5 times. The business has maintained strong growth dynamics in 2014. In the first quarter of this year transactions exceeded RUB 36 bln, 136% more than last year.

As of April 1, 2014 the Sberbank Group's portfolio of current trade finance deals exceeds \\$15 bln.

The number of clients taking advantage of post-import financing continues to grow. Since 2009, the volume of transactions has increased more than 4 times. In the first quarter of 2014 the volume of letters of credit for imports issued by Sberbank with financing/guarantee increased by more than 50% compared to the same period last year.

Documentary letters of credit within the client's credit limit also continue to demonstrate strong growth. Over the past two years, the portfolio of these commitments has more than tripled and at the end of 2013 exceeded USD 1.3 bln. As of April 1, 2014 the volume of existing limits amounted to about USD 4.8 bln, exceeding the figure for last year by more than 80%.

Andrey Ivanov stressed that the introduction of matrix management for the trade finance business has led to a steady increase in the volume of transactions at Sberbank's foreign subsidiaries in the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey and Switzerland. "Given the significant development prospects made possible by the Sberbank Group's geographical expansion, we are actively building a global platform for trade finance, which already allows us to offer clients broader and more flexible integrated solutions and facilitate trade flow," said the speaker.

In March of this year, Sberbank's Board approved the trade finance and documentary business five year development strategy within the Sberbank Group. The strategy includes ambitious goals and aims to be the largest servicer of foreign trade turnover in the Russian market by the end of 2018. The main factor driving the business's growth will include products such as aviation financing, commodity trade finance, EXIAR coverage finance and servicing domestic trade flow with letters of credit.