Russia’s largest bank state-controlled Sberbank posted a net profit of RUB728bn ($8bn) in 1H23 and RUB139bn for June 2023 alone, according to the press release of the bank cited by Kommersant.

As followed by bne IntelliNews, Sberbank posted a RUB357bn ($4.5bn) net profit under IFRS in 1Q23. The profit for 1Q23 alone was 1.5-fold higher than the bottom line posted by Russia’s largest lender for all of 2022. 

Sberbank’s retail loan portfolio grew by 2.6% in June and by 12.4% year to date as of the end of 1H23, exceeding RUR13.5 trillion, while retail loans issued in June peaked at a record-high RUB720bn. The volume of individual deposits in Sberbank in June increased by 3.7%, of corporate deposits by 4.4% (up by 8.4% and 8.4% ytd respectively).

In June, the bank crossed the mark of 80mn monthly users of Sberbank Online and 107mn active customers. Sberbank also “closed the sale of our European business, which was positively reflected in our financial results," CEO German Gref commented, as cited by Kommersant.

Previously Gref also pledged to revise the dividend policy of the bank by the end of 2023.

To remind, Sber, under full blocking sanctions, did not pay out its RUB623bn dividend for 2021 amid the fallout from Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine.

But the bank surprised with the record-breaking total dividend payout of RUB565bn ($7.3bn) in 2022, more than double the RUB271bn net profit the bank earned last year. The largest recipient of the dividend, at RUB282.5bn, will be the state (50% plus one share in Sberbank).

The dividend decision came on the same day as President Vladimir Putin urged businesses to be "patriotic" in his anticipated televised address at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).