Sberbank’s Ural branch’s consumer loan portfolio exceeded 83.3 billion RUR at the beginning of 2008, which is 29.3 billion RUR better than a year earlier. So far, the bank has provided its customers with 341,000 loans.

'This impressive loan portfolio growth results from the ongoing improvements our crediting schemes are given, and the emergence of more subsidiaries. Most of the loans we offered our customers were no-purpose consumer loans, automobile loans, and mortgages. We gave thousands of people an opportunity to move into a better home, buy a car, go on holiday or get some new furniture,’ Sberbank’s Ural branch’s Private Loans Director Vyacheslav Reshetnikov says.

The share of no-purpose consumer loans in the total loan portfolio volume amounted to 57%. The obvious demand for these loans can be explained by the ease of getting it: one does not have to report on how the money will be spent, which cuts down on paperwork greatly.

The share of loans people got to buy a place or to have a dwelling constructed came to 29.4%, or over 25,000 loans worth 17.2 billion RUR altogether. Using these loans, the bank’s customers bought 500,000 square meters worth of apartments last year.

The share of automobile loans reached 9.3%; the bank offered preferential terms to plenty of customers and made its decisions fast enough, which motivated over 20,000 borrowers to get 8.5 billion RUR of car loans from Sberbank’s Ural branch in 2007.

'We improved on our crediting rates greatly last year, and we are planning to keep up with this tempo in 2008 by improving our loan schemes further, making document flow and customer service less painstaking, and launching new technologies like e-banking and m-banking. All this is expected to make our loans as attractive and affordable as loans can get,’ Mr. Reshetnikov observed.