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☆ Top Russian banks say exporters can now get trapped funds from India
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Elena Fabrichnaya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

After Moscow despatched troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries imposed sweeping sanctions and have sought to wean themselves off Russian energy exports. India has been a major beneficiary, picking up Russian oil on the cheap. In response, India is seeking to stimulate investment in several sectors and diversify the goods that India supplies to Russia, Kapoor said at the economic forum. Tightening global supplies have led Russian companies to stop offering fertiliser such as di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) to India at discounted prices, three industry sources told Reuters. On the transactions issue, Kapoor rejected reports in Russian media that rupees stuck in Russian exporters' accounts in India were related to oil supply payments.

Persons: Ivan Nosov, Andrei Kostin, Kostin, Moscow Pavan Kapoor, Kapoor, Sergei Lavrov, Lavrov, Elena Fabrichnaya, Alexander Marrow, Gareth Jones, Emelia Organizations: ., Economic, RBC, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine MOSCOW, India, Moscow, Ukraine, Vladivostok, Sberbank, Arab, Emirates, Russian, Jakarta

☆ 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

"But the situation is changing and it is possible that a window of opportunity will appear before the end of this year, then we will issue yuan bonds." Russian firms placed bonds worth 1.7 billion yuan ($237.5 million) in May. The bank has issued 140 billion roubles ($1.7 billion) worth of rouble-denominated bonds this year, he said, and would continue to do so at the right price. The head of Sberbank rival VTB last week told Reuters Russia's economy had adapted to sanctions. Sberbank's record first-quarter profit of 357.2 billion roubles featured no one-time revenues, meaning profits should grow as the business does, Skvortsov said.

Persons: Taras Skvortsov, Skvortsov, VTB, Alexander Marrow, Elena Fabrichnaya, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Reuters, Monetary Fund, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine MOSCOW, 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.

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 expects Sberbank to pay dividends on 2022 profits, says TASS
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A view shows the logo of Sber (Sberbank) at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia June 15, 2022. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov/MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Russia's finance ministry said on Thursday it expects state-owned lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) to pay dividends of at least 50% on its 2022 profits, a prospect that drove up Sberbank shares and the wider Moscow Exchange stock index. We will discuss this further," the TASS news agency quoted Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev as saying. Sberbank, in common with other major Russian companies, did not pay a 2021 dividend last year on the government's orders. The rouble-based MOEX index (.IMOEX) pared losses to climb 0.6% higher on the day, while Sberbank shares did the same, gaining around 1.6% by 1333 GMT and nearing a multi-month high.

☆ Russia's Sberbank to launch DeFi platform in coming months - Interfax
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russia's largest lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) plans to launch a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform within the next few months, the Interfax news agency reported. Sberbank says it wants to make the Russian decentralised finance system the best in the world, and is currently beta testing its own platform. Traditional financial institutions are looking at how to get into the space and integrate DeFi technology with their existing regulated operations. Sberbank will launch open testing in March of its platform and aims to start commercial operations by the end of April, the Interfax news agency quoted Konstantin Klimenko, head of products at Sberbank's blockchain laboratory, as saying. Sberbank's DeFi platform will be based on the Ethereum blockchain, the second-largest crypto currency by market capitalisation after bitcoin, Klimenko said on Friday.

☆ Sanctions forcing Russia's Sberbank to close UAE office, company says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Alexander Marrow | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sweeping Western sanctions targeted Russia's financial system after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Sberbank is one of several major Russian banks to have been blocked from the international SWIFT payments system and some senior executives have been personally hit by sanctions. "Unfortunately, in the context of sanctions restrictions, we are facing serious constraints on our SberInvest Middle East office in Abu Dhabi and we, unfortunately, are forced to close it in the first quarter of 2023," Vedyakhin told reporters. He said Sberbank would continue serving clients in the UAE market and that active communications were underway with Chinese regulators about opening an office there. Vedyakhin declined to give full-year forecasts but said Sberbank was confident of being profitable in December.

☆ Rouble tumbles to near eight-month low vs dollar
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

By 0740 GMT, the rouble was down 1.8% against the dollar at 72.25 , earlier hitting 72.3075, its weakest mark since April 29. It also lost 1.6% to trade at 76.82 versus the euro , also a near eight-month low, and shed 2% against the yuan to a near seven-month low of 10.28 . The rouble is continuing its "unrestrained fall", said Veles Capital analysts. Brent crude oil , a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was up 0.3% at $82.4 a barrel. For Russian equities guide seeFor Russian treasury bonds see($1 = 72.0000 roubles)Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Tom Hogue and Toby ChopraOur 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.

☆ Sberbank 10-month net profit tops 50 bln roubles under RAS, CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Russia's largest lender Sberbank's (SBER.MM) net profit for the first ten months of the year exceeded 50 billion roubles ($811.7 million) under Russian accounting standards, its chief executive said on Thursday. The company also said it would return to publishing results on a monthly basis. Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Croatia's Fortenova says it was not notified of Sberbank's stake sale - media
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( David French | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

SARAJEVO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Croatian food producer and retailer Fortenova Grupa said it had not been officially notified of a deal that Russian state bank Sberbank Rossii PAO (SBER.MM) reached to sell its 43% stake in the company, local media reported on Thursday. In a brief statement on Wednesday, Sberbank said the stake had been bought by Saif Bin Markhan Alketbi, an investor from the United Arab Emirates. Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Top Russian lender Sberbank expands financial terminal capabilities
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

As Western businesses have left the market, Russian businesses have sought to pick up the pieces, finding ways to replace departing firms. London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG.L) data platform Refinitiv and rival Bloomberg suspended their services, including financial products. Sberbank said its platform now included analytical and research materials, as well as daily trading overviews in commodities, funding and FX. Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), the parent of Reuters News, holds a minority stake in the LSE after the exchange bought Refinitiv from it. Sberbank's platform, previously known as Sberbank Markets, has been used by 5,000 corporate clients, Sberbank said.

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