Gref told Putin about the “hard” actions of the Central Bank – RBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chairman of the Board of Sberbank German Gref (left to right) during a meeting in Novo-Ogaryovo residence

Photo : TASS

The policy of the Central Bank during the financial crisis cost Sberbank profit, said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the bank, German Gref. “As for the policy of the Central Bank, we will see, of course, they are very tough act to us,” – said Gref (quoted by the Kremlin press service).

Gref said that Sberbank has attracted at CB three trillion rubles, which were for the bank, “the most expensive means” today. Return more than half succeeded as reported Gref, due to the growth of individuals’ funds in the accounts of the bank. On 1 July 2015 the number of deposits increased by 7%, which, according to Gref, is “a very good indicator.” “And by that, of course, we have largely been able to return very expensive means of the Central Bank, we have attracted, and halve the amount of involvement of the Central Bank”, – informed the president Gref.

After listening to the head of Sberbank, President wondered why the major shareholder of the bank allocates a “very expensive resources».

In this Gref said that the Central Bank was forced to raise rates and act tough. However, according to him, the policy of control “largely mitigated and saved the situation as a whole».

The profit of Sberbank in the first half of 2015 amounted to 81.5 billion rubles. – Against 186 billion rubles. in the same period last year. “But for such a difficult year, in general, the very existence of profits is already very good,” – said Gref.

A particularly difficult for the Bank was the first quarter of this year, Gref said. In the second quart of “the situation is gradually recovering,” the demand for loans, which in the past six months fell to 6.5%, said the head of Sberbank.

In December 2014 the central bank unexpectedly raised its key rate by 6 , 5 percentage points to 17% per annum. This decision was taken because of the increased risks of devaluation and inflation. Subsequently, the regulator reduced the key rate four times already. Prior to that, on February 2 it was reduced from 17% to 15% per annum, March 16 – from 15% to 14%, 5 May – from 14% to 12,5%.

On Friday, July 31 The Board of Directors of Bank of Russia reduced key rate c 11,5% to 11%. The regulator explained by the fact that “the balance of risks is still biased towards a significant cooling of the economy».