VTB maintains 2025 forecasts for net profit, lending

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - VTB maintains its forecasts for net profit and lending in 2025, First Deputy Chairman Dmitry Pyanov told journalists.

The bank increased its net profit to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 26% year-on-year in January-February to 77.5 billion rubles. "If we multiply 77.5 billion rubles linearly by 6, it actually slightly exceeds our annual target of 430 billion rubles," Pyanov said.

Regarding a potential revision of the annual profit target, he said the bank would consider its appropriateness after reviewing results for the first half of the year.

"Targets are typically set very deliberately, and there's usually no strong inclination to adjust them significantly in either direction - neither downwards nor upwards. Therefore, like most public institutions, we traditionally use semi-annual reporting for evaluation. New information either confirms the existing target or necessitates an upward revision. We definitely won't make any target adjustments in the first quarter. For us, this decision point comes after presenting half-year results," Pyanov said.

VTB forecasts total loan portfolio growth exceeding 5% this year. The corporate portfolio is expected to grow over 10%, while the retail portfolio may shrink 10%.

"We intend to meet our goal - double-digit annual growth in corporate lending and a reduction in retail lending," he said.

"There might be some monthly fluctuations, but we're essentially sticking to the targets set during our annual reporting. Despite challenges like higher capital adequacy requirements and reduced borrower demand due to regulatory restrictions, we're still seeing demand. Another notable trend in the first two months has been the deliberate shift of borrowers to the bond market. We observe this trend where corporates believe they can secure cheaper funding through bonds than through banks," he said.

If lending trends continue this way, the growth rates of both corporate and retail portfolios could reach their lowest levels of the past five to seven years, he said.

In the pandemic-affected year of 2020, Russian banks' corporate loan portfolios grew 10%, while retail portfolios expanded 13.5%.