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☆ Meet the woman who engineered Russia's wartime economy and helped secure another term for Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina has played a key role in stabilizing Russia's sanctions-hit economy. It's also aimed at the woman behind him: Elvira Nabiullina, the country's central bank governor, who plays a chief role in keeping Russia's wartime economy ticking. At the time, she was the first woman to lead a Group of Eight, or G8, central bank. In 2015, Euromoney, a finance trade publication, named Nabiullina Central Bank Governor of the Year. In December, she issued a warning that Russia's economy was at risk of overheating.

Persons: Elvira Nabiullina, —, Putin, It's, Nabiullina, Daniel McDowell, McDowell, wined, Christine Lagarde, Nabiullina —, Richard Portes, Portes —, Portes, Anders Åslund, Åslund, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, Yaroslav Kuzminov, Kuzminov, Nabiullina's, Alan Harvey, Herman Gref —, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Maxim Shemetov, Michel Camdessus, she's, isn't, Sergei Aleksashenko, Alexei Makarkin, Vladimir Pesnya, Nabiulina, let's Organizations: Ukraine, Service, Russian, KGB, Syracuse University, Kremlin, International Monetary Fund, US, London Business School, Moscow Times, Bloomberg, Higher School of Economics, —, Moscow State University, SNS, USSR, Industrial Union Board, Gref, Central Bank Governor, Nabiullina Central Bank Governor, Banker, Central Banker, IMF, Monetary Fund, Financial Times, Government, Political Technologies, Wall Street Journal, RBC, Politico Europe Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Brussels, Nabiullina, Swedish, Moscow, Ufa, Central Russia, Tatars, Crimea, Euromoney, Europe, steadying

[1/5] Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a plenary session of the Artificial Intelligence Journey 2023 international AI and machine learning conference in Moscow, Russia November 24, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Putin to approve new AI strategy soonChina and U.S. lead on AI currentlyRussian AI has been set back by Ukraine war, sanctionsPutin calls Russia to up its game on AIMOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that the West should not be allowed to develop a monopoly in the sphere of artificial intelligence (AI), and said that a much more ambitious Russian strategy for the development of AI would be approved shortly. "In all spheres of our life, humanity is beginning a new chapter of its existence," Putin said of AI, adding that Russia needed to up its game on AI both in ambitions and execution. Russia, he said, would have to change laws, boost international cooperation, and ensure much more investment for the development of AI. He told Putin in June that Sberbank was making around $3 billion annually from $1 billion in AI investments.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Klimentyev, Putin, Gref, Sberbank, Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones, Mark Potter Organizations: Artificial, Sputnik, REUTERS Acquire, MOSCOW, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Kremlin, China, U.S, Russian, Ukraine, United States, India, Israel, South Korea, Japan

☆ Sberbank CEO expects 'serious cooling' in Russian mortgage market
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Elena Fabrichnaya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest bank Sberbank (SBER.MM) expects a sharp cooling of the mortgage market following an expected 80% rise in mortgage lending this year, CEO German Gref said on Wednesday. Gref said the bank's mortgage issuance for the whole of 2023 was expected to reach 4.6 trillion roubles ($50.1 billion). VTB, Russia's number two bank, expects mortgage loans across the entire sector to total 7.2 trillion roubles this year, falling to between 5 and 5.5 trillion roubles in 2024. Vyacheslav Dusaleyev, head of retail business at Rosbank, gave corresponding forecasts of 7.3 trillion roubles this year and 5 trillion next year. Mortgage demand has remained buoyant in part because of the wide range of preferential offers available, according to the central bank.

Persons: Maxim, Gref, Sberbank, Vyacheslav Dusaleyev, Olga Polyakova, Elena Fabrichnaya, Mark Trevelyan, Christina Fincher Organizations: St ., Economic, REUTERS, Rights, Mortgage, Thomson Locations: St, St . Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Moscow, Rosbank

☆ Who is in Putin's delegation to China - and who stayed in Moscow?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, October 18, 2023. Sputnik/Dmitry Azarov/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently on a visit to China, his second only trip outside the former Soviet Union since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Who is in the Russian delegation with Putin - and who stayed in Russia? Before Putin left for China, he was shown at a meeting with defence and spy chiefs at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. The following top officials are thought to be in Russia.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Azarov, Alexander Novak, Sergei Lavrov, Yuri Ushakov, Maxim Oreshkin, Dmitry Peskov, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Anton Siluanov, Maxim Reshetnikov, Dmitry Shugaev, Yuri Chikhanchin, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Igor Morgulov, Igor Sechin, Alexei Miller, Alexei Likhachev, Andrei Kostin, Igor Shuvalov, Leonid Mikhelson, Oleg Belozyorov, Kirill Dmitriev, Putin, Sergei Shoigu, Nikolai Patrushev, Alexander Bortnikov, Dmitry Medvedev, Anton Vaino, Sergei Kiriyenko, Mikhail Mishustin, Viktor Zolotov, Sergei Naryshkin, Guy Faulconbridge, Muralikumar Organizations: Forum, Sputnik, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Soviet Union, Putin, Kremlin, Central Bank Governor, Federal Service for Military, Gazprom, VEB, Russian, Russian Direct Investment, Russia Security, Federal Security Service, Russia's Foreign Intelligence, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, Ukraine, Russia, CHINA, North Korea, China BUSINESSPERSONS, Moscow, Russian

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Russian rouble climbs to over 2-week high vs dollarMove comes after Putin reimposes currency controlsRouble had slumped to over 18-month low this weekAnalysts expect rouble to firm more in coming weeksOct 12 (Reuters) - Russia's rouble leapt against the U.S. dollar on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered the mandatory sale of foreign currency revenues for some exporters to buttress the currency. The rouble collapsed to a record low in the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, before Moscow imposed similar capital controls that saw it recover to a seven-year high. Kogan warned, however, that by 2025-2026 businesses would form plans based on a rouble rate of 100-105. The central bank endorsed the measures, a shift in its stance, after it previously warned of the inefficiency of currency controls. "The rouble is even less tradable for foreign investors after Russia re-imposed some capital controls," Piotr Matys, senior FX analyst at In Touch Capital Markets.

Persons: Maxim Shemetov, Putin, Rouble, rouble, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Kogan, Kogan, Gref, Andrei Belousov, Piotr Matys, Dmitry Polevoy, Brent, Alexander Marrow, Amruta, Robert Birsel, Mark Potter, Varun, Alexander Smith Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Russia's Higher, of Economics, TASS, Wednesday, Bank of Russia, FX, Touch, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, outflows, Locko, Bangalore

☆ The CEO of Russia's biggest bank says the ruble is 'unjustifiably undervalued,' but Putin has downplayed the ruble's weakness — and it shows even Russia's elite don't see eye to eye about the economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sberbank CEO Herman Gref said the Russian currency should be trading at 80 to 85 rubles to the US dollar. Gref's comments came just as Putin sought to project an image of calm in the country's economy at an economic forum on Tuesday. Russia's economy has been deeply impacted by Western sanctions ever since it invaded Ukraine, even if there's some support from the Kremlin's wartime spending. The impact of the sanctions on Russia's economy and currency has fuelled inflation. Russian inflation accelerated 5.15% year-over-year in August, well above the central bank's 4% annual inflation target.

Persons: Herman Gref, Putin, Gref Organizations: Service, Kremlin Locations: Russian, Wall, Silicon, Ukraine

☆ Sberbank CEO tells Putin of huge returns on its AI investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, July 19 (Reuters) - Russia's dominant lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) is making around $3 billion each year from artificial intelligence, a return on investment of about 200%, CEO German Gref told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Advances in generative AI by firms such as startup OpenAI, backed by Microsoft (MSFT.O), are stimulating excitement about the potential benefits for business and society. "Every year we invest a sum of around $1 billion in artificial intelligence technology," Gref told Putin at a televised event in the Kremlin. "And we get about $3 billion back from artificial intelligence." During his time at Sberbank's helm, Gref has overseen investments in artificial intelligence, cloud services, big data and smart devices, transforming the former Soviet savings bank's image.

Persons: Gref, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Sberbank, Vladimir Soldatkin, Alexander Marrow, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Microsoft, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Soviet Union, Sberbank's, Ukraine

[1/4] A logo is on display in the office of Sberbank, Russia's state-owned dominant lender and one of the country's leading technology players, in Moscow, Russia, March 28, 2023. But it also highlights challenges as Russia's tech development becomes increasingly reliant on one state-owned player. Since 2020 it has cast itself as a technology company as well, and is now seeking a bigger slice of Russia's shrinking technology pie. "There are restrictions on some of them, it is a very complex technology," Belevtsev said. "There is already a lot of cooperation on engineers and technology," Belevtsev said.

April 21 (Reuters) - Demand for the Chinese yuan is growing in Russia, the CEO of Sberbank (SBER.MM) said on Friday, adding that the lender has made use of central bank currency swaps providing yuan liquidity. CEO German Gref said Sberbank was gradually raising its interest rates on yuan deposits and had resorted to borrowing from the Russian central bank in yuan several times. Gref said shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting on Friday had supported the board's recommendation to pay a record 565 billion roubles ($6.94 billion) in dividends. Gref said the bank would take advantage of an early payment option and direct around 10 billion roubles to the budget. Gref said Sberbank was not engaged in any talks with Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) over an asset swap.

April 12 (Reuters) - Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's dominant lender and a leading technology company, is finding graphics cards the trickiest hardware item to replace in the absence of Western providers, CEO German Gref said on Wednesday. Sberbank needs the cards for its artificial intelligence services and super computers and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine have curbed Russia's access to some technology imports. "We depend first and foremost on technology called hardware," Gref told lawmakers in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament. "And probably the most critical position is graphics cards, microelectronics - video cards for high-performance computing." In the absence of Western imports, local companies have enhanced efforts to increase domestic production and cushion the blow.

Sberbank, which boasts around 107 million active retail clients, was releasing results under international reporting standards for the first time in over a year. Russian authorities had ordered banks to limit disclosures and dividend payments last year as Moscow tried to maintain financial stability. Net interest income rose 6.6% year-on-year to 1.87 trillion roubles, the bank said, while net commission income rose 15.4% to 697.1 billion roubles. Sberbank's annual profit came around 30 billion roubles lower than what it reported last month under Russian accounting standards. February profit under Russian standards stood at 115 billion roubles.

☆ Russia’s biggest bank suffers 78% collapse in profit as sanctions bite
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Sberbank’s annual profit came at 270.5 billion rubles ($3.57 billion), down 78.3% from 2021 and around 30 billion rubles ($396 million) lower than what it reported for 2022 under Russian accounting standards. ‘Anti-crisis plan’Sberbank’s resilience in the face of sanctions helped Russia’s banking sector recover from a loss-making first half in 2022. 2 bank VTB, have not fared so well and Russia’s central bank warned of “systemic risks” to the sector last week as lenders scramble to turn a profit. Sberbank said savings exceeded 240 billion rubles ($3.2 billion), with operating costs down 1.5% year-on-year. The bank recovered $6 billion in foreign currency from abroad since sanctions were imposed, Gref said.

☆ Russia's Sberbank not expecting cenbank to cut rates this year -CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) does not expect the Bank of Russia to cut rates from 7.5% this year and sees the country's economic growth at around 0%, CEO German Gref said on Thursday. Sberbank made a net profit of 270.5 billion roubles ($3.57 billion) in 2022, the bank said on Thursday, a 78.3% drop from the year before as sweeping Western sanctions rattled Russia's financial sector. Gref said the bank's 2023 return on equity should come in at around 20%, up from 5.2% in 2022. ($1 = 75.9500 roubles)Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's Sberbank expects profit to rebound this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) - Russia's largest lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) expects its profit this year to return close to levels before the Ukraine crisis, CEO German Gref said on Thursday after reporting a 78.3% slump last year owing to sweeping Western sanctions. Sberbank made a 270.5 billion rouble profit last year, down from a record 1.25 trillion roubles in 2021. Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya Writing by Alexander Marrow Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's Sberbank makes over 50 bln rbls profit in 10-months
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Russian financial authorities have managed to stabilise the situation - yet restrictions, including capital controls, remain and partial mobilisation led to cash outflows from retail accounts in September and October. Sberbank shares were trading at 5.6% and VTB shares were up 3.1% at 1136 GMT, respectively. Sberbank's results "are good news allowing us to expect strong financial results in the remaining months and to hope for a dividend payout return," Promsvyazbank analysts said in a note. Dividends from Sberbank and VTB are an important source of budget revenues. Sberbank sees no restrictions on dividend payments in the coming years while VTB would use the bulk of its profit to beef-up the capital, their CEOs have said.

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