vice-president, Vneshtorgbank Andrey Suchkov is the head of Vneshtorgbank’s mortgage and consumer credit division and has a good claim to the title “father of Russian mortgages”.Mortgages have just come of age in Russia and the business of lending money to people to buy their own home is expected to grow from the current $1bn to somewhere over $100bn by the end of the decade.
Alexei Kudrin, Finance Minister of the Russian Federation and The Banker’s Finance Minister of the Year, talked to Karina Robinson in London about the challenges facing the Russian economy in what looks like a defining moment in its path towards becoming a liberal market economy.
The low capital base of the Russian banking sector is a serious concern; it could hamper the country’s ability to achieve its ambitious growth targets. But there is growth.Stephen Timewell reports from Moscow.The Russian economy may be growing strongly, with latest GDP growth estimates put at 5.8% in 2004, but Russian bankers are concerned about the low capability of Russia’s banks and their lack of access to long-term funds.
Russians have seen it all before; when the queues began to form outside banks that were refusing to pay out last month, panic began to set in.A bank crisis that started in May with the closure of medium-sized Sodbiznesbank threatened to spin out of control after the large retail bank, Guta Bank, closed its doors and a run started on accounts at Alfa Bank, one of the two biggest commercial banks in Russia.
Russians have seen it all before; when the queues began to form outside banks that were refusing to pay out last month, panic began to set in.A bank crisis that started in May with the closure of medium-sized Sodbiznesbank threatened to spin out of control after the large retail bank, Guta Bank, closed its doors and a run started on accounts at Alfa Bank, one of the two biggest commercial banks in Russia.