‘The Russian banking business grows 1.5 times more rapidly in the provinces than it does in Moscow. In the Urals, for example, our business development rate is 2.4 times faster than the bank’s average. In Yekaterinburg, the growth rate is actually 3.6 times faster than the bank’s average. In fact, our Yekaterinburg segment is responsible for nearly a half of Bank VTB 24 deposit portfolio in Sverdlovsk Region. This segment’s share of the regional deposit portfolio has gone up by one-third since the recession began,’ Deputy President and Deputy Chairman of Bank VTB 24 Supervisory Board Vyacheslav Vorobiev announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg.

‘The share of overdue debt on loans given to private individuals came to 2.34% on November 1, 2009. All in all, the overdue debt has gone up by 2.5% from the original .16%. This figure is much lower than the banking system’s average (that is, 6.66% on November 1, 2009). The overdue debt mainly comes from small businesses and workers made redundant by their enterprises. The overdue debt rate is actually going down at the moment,’ Vorobiev added.

‘The volume of mortgages we have been offering has gone down by 6% in this last, recession-hit year, but in Yekaterinburg, the volume only decreased by 5%,’ he said.