ALBAWABA — Russia's top bank Sberbank Rossii on Thursday said its net profit dropped 78.3 percent in 2022 as hard-hitting Western sanctions choked the country's financial sector after the invasion of Ukraine.
"2022 has been an extremely difficult year for the Russian economy and the Russian banking sector," German Gref, Sberbank chief executive officer, said.
"Our business model passed another strength test," Gref added, noting that the bank would now resume consideration of dividend payments on its 2022 results, with a decision due in March and a payout of 50 percent of profit expected.
The Moscow-based bank said its resilience despite sanctions helped Russia's banking sector recover from a loss-making first half in 2022, as it recovered $6 billion in foreign currency from abroad since sanctions were imposed.
Sberbank reported a net profit of 270.5 billion rubles last year under international reporting standards, coming in 30 billion rubles lower than what it reported under Russian accounting standards.
Net interest income rose 6.6 percent year-on-year to 1.87 trillion rubles, the bank said, while net commission income rose 15.4 percent to 697.1 billion rubles. Return on equity slumped by 19 percentage points to 5.2 percent.
Profit for January-February 2023, under Russian standards, stood at 225 billion rubles, Sberbank said.
Sberbank said savings exceeded 240 billion rubles, with the group's operating costs down 1.5 percent year-on-year.
Gref said this year's profits should be close to the record 1.25-trillion rubles earned in the "pre-crisis year" and expects ROE to reach around 20 percent, with net interest margin seen in the 5.3 percent-5.5 percent range.
"We implemented an anti-crisis plan: we radically revised our priorities, introduced the strictest savings measures, closed and sold international businesses and also made all the necessary provisions for the loan portfolio and blocked assets," the CEO said.
The bank’s Moscow-listed shares hit a more than one-year high at market opening on Thursday before easing 0.37 percent to 172.55 ruble at closing.
