The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has disclosed data on growing overdue debts on credits provided by banks to private clients. The CBR has divided banks into groups depending on the size of their assets. It became clear that the highest growth of overdue debts was registered in the second group which unified banks occupying the sixth to twentieth positions in the rankings compiled by the Central Bank in terms of assets. In relative terms, individual problem debts grew from 2.7% to 4.2% of overall volume of credits provided by banks incorporated into the second group. At the same time, banks united into the third group which occupied the 21st to 50th places in the Central Bank’s asset rankings displayed a reduction in the bad debt growth rate, although earlier the volume of bad debts grew at a hefty rate. Although the group’s bad debt portfolio grew from R5.4 billion in 2005 to R10.2b in 2006, the bad debt share remained unchanged at 4.7% of overall credits provided by banks united into the group. The share of overdue debts in banks incorporated into the first group was less than 1.0%.
Source: WWW.KOMMERSANT.RU, March 13, 2007
