Sberbank - Annual Report 2010 - Corporate Business

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# Corporate Business

## Lending

Corporate lending remains a top priority for Sberbank. In 2010 Sberbank aimed to balance the growth of the loan portfolio with its profitability and quality, improve lending processes, and develop and implement a customer-oriented model to work with clients ranging from micro businesses to major corporations.

Financial markets and the overall economic environment stabilised and began to improve in the reporting year. In this climate, corporate demand for investment resources began to rebound, and lending increased healthily across the banking sector.

Sberbank has taken the lead among Russia’s banks in terms of investments in the real economy. The Bank extended over RUB 4.35tn in loans to corporate borrowers in 2010. From the mid-second quarter, new corporate lending consistently exceeded repayments. As a result, the loan portfolio expanded 14.2% year on year to RUB 4,872bn.

The Bank actively cooperates with Russian and multinational majors, who add the most value to the Russian economy, as well as micro and small enterprises. The Bank prioritises corporate borrowers who have good credit histories and whose accounts with the Bank are their main business accounts.

The Bank had a particular focus on major corporate borrowers in 2010, providing funds for customers’ operations and investments; refinancing loans from other banks; funding acquisitions, mergers and takeovers; financing lease transactions and bidding costs, as well as housing construction. Some of the related construction was performed under contracts from the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Defence.

The Bank also completed a range of debt restructuring programmes for Russia’s major companies. Some turnaround programmes were implemented by arranging syndicated loans that were unique to the Russian market. To support Russia’s core enterprises, the Bank also used government guarantees in consortium with lending banks and the government.

In the small-business segment, the Bank focused on simple, standardised, mass customised high quality products and services. To achieve this, the Bank began to disseminate its innovative micro business lending process, Credit Factory, over the entire Sberbank network in 2010. Credit Factory facilitates significantly reducing the time to review loan applications and simplifying lending procedures. In addition, the Bank launched a pilot process of standardised lending to small businesses with revenues below RUB 60m per annum.

In 2010, Sberbank introduced a new range of seven basic loan types, Doveriye, Business-Oborot, Business-Invest, Business-Auto, Business-Nedvizhimost, Business-Aktiv, and Business-Renta, and three dedicated products, Privatization for Small Businesses, Government Contracts and GAZ Facility, aiming to support small businesses and encourage demand for debt financing. The Bank also implemented a joint project with the Government of the Republic of Belarus to offer special lending terms to the Russian buyers of agricultural machinery manufactured in Belarus.

While promoting positive economic developments, efforts undertaken by Sberbank also enabled it to extend over RUB 480bn in loans to small enterprises in 2010.

## Corporate deposit operations

With liquidity abundant, taking time deposits from corporate customers was not a priority for the Group in 2010. Instead its focus was on improving service quality and consequently customer loyalty and satisfaction.

The corporate deposits balance added 10% in 2010 to RUB 1,817bn despite the Bank reducing interest rates on all instruments given that additional corporate funds were not required.

Sberbank’s reluctance to participate in price competition to win customers’ funds resulted in the decline in its share of aggregate corporate deposits in the banking sector from 17.7% to 16.6%.

A pilot project was launched in a number of territorial banks in 2010 to offer corporate customers published fixed rates on time deposit instruments. As a result, clients can make deposit agreements by accepting the terms and conditions on the Bank’s website. To do so, one simply submits the relevant request to the Bank.

## Corporate banking services

In 2010, corporate banking’s main focus was improving the speed and convenience of services and customising products. Service lines such as trade and export finance and documentary transactions developed robustly both globally and domestically. Investment and banking services also advanced.

### Cash and settlement services

The vast majority of Sberbank’s clients use its cash and settlement services. Related income has traditionally accounted for a considerable portion of overall fees and commissions — RUB 40.6bn or 31.0% of the total fee and commission income in 2010. Given that the Bank is promoting its offering in a highly competitive market, it seeks to improve its processes and make its services more convenient for all customers.

In 2010, the Bank significantly reduced the time required to open an account, provided for the possibility of making changes to account agreements in line with a customer’s preferences and nature of business, and cut the time taken to process payment orders. The latter was achieved by implementing electronic document management. The Bank also started work to equalise pricing across Russia with the aim of improving customer loyalty.

The Bank introduced a new internet banking service for corporate customers, Sberbank Business OnLine.

A full-service offering is now available remotely through the internet to meet the surging demand in the micro business segment. Roughly 20,000 customers already use the service.

### Cash collection

The Bank provides cash collection services to its clients, including the delivery and collection of cash and valuables, and servicing automated teller machines and self-service devices. In 2010 the Bank provided services to 87,700 customer locations. Income from cash collection services amounted to RUB 4.4bn in 2010, or 3.4% of total fee and commission income.

From 2010, in addition to traditional banking services, customers may use new offerings such as the receipt and transfer of customer revenues to accounts with other credit institutions, or the delivery of banknotes/coins with a certain face value in exchange for banknotes with a different face value for customers opening new outlets.

Sberbank places great emphasis on the security of cash in transit (CIT). In particular, it started a phased changeover to special containers for money transportation. The Bank also uses an automated system to monitor CIT vehicles. Both are large-scale projects unique to Russia’s valuables transportation.

### Trade and export finance

With Russian companies’ foreign economic activity gradually recovering, Sberbank considerably increased its trade and export finance in 2010. The overall value of transactions grew six-fold from 2009 to exceed USD 3.8bn.

In 2010, Sberbank strongly promoted trade finance instruments. In particular, the Bank arranged financing for its customers by means of tied loans, advanced pre-export financing and opened unsecured letters of credit in favour of customers, taking into account credit exposure limits.

In 2010, cooperation with foreign export credit agencies was resumed, and operations relating to the acceptance of letters of credit and the issuance of reimbursement obligations on behalf of Russia and CIS-based banks were actively developed. Subsidiaries in the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine account for the major portion of such obligations, reflecting Sberbank’s strategy to expand operations in local trade finance markets.

As at the end of 2010, the Bank maintained correspondent relations with 219 leading international banks in order to support customers’ foreign economic activity and improve its international settlement processes.

## History

- Corporate Business
- Risk Management
- Operational Risk
- Market Risk
- Liquidity Risk

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