Growth of mortgage lending accelerated in June

The portfolio of banks' retail loans in June increased by 2.5% vs 2.2% in March—May. Mortgage lending grew faster, probably due to the fact that households wished to take out a loan before the conditions under the main concessional lending programme change on 1 July. Corporate lending, on the contrary, slowed down to 0.4% vs 1.1% in May, which corresponds to the average level of 2019.

Household funds with banks increased moderately (+0.4%) over the month after the outflow in May, while the trend towards their redistribution from deposits to current accounts remained. At the same time, corporate deposits decreased by 0.5%, mainly those in foreign currency.

The sector's net profit in June amounted to 204 billion rubles (with the return on capital being 22% in annual terms), or 6% lower than in May. In total, in the first half of 2021, banks earned 1.2 trillion rubles, which is almost twice the result of the first half of 2020 (630 billion rubles), mainly due to business growth and lower spending on reserves.

For details, refer to the information and analytical material 'Russian Banking Sector Developments in June 2021'.