Russia's dominant lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) made a net profit of 270.5 billion roubles ($3.57 billion) in 2022, the bank said on Thursday, a 78.3% drop from the year before as sweeping Western sanctions rattled Russia's financial sector.
Sberbank, which boasts around 107 million active retail clients, was releasing results under international reporting standards for the first time in over a year. Russian authorities had ordered banks to limit disclosures and dividend payments last year as Moscow tried to maintain financial stability.
CEO German Gref said that 2022 had been a challenging year but the bank would now be able to resume consideration of dividend payments on its 2022 results.
Net interest income rose 6.6% year-on-year to 1.87 trillion roubles, the bank said, while net commission income rose 15.4% to 697.1 billion roubles. Return on equity (ROE) slumped by 19 percentage points to 5.2%.
Sberbank's annual profit came around 30 billion roubles lower than what it reported last month under Russian accounting standards. February profit under Russian standards stood at 115 billion roubles.
"We implemented an anti-crisis plan: we radically revised our priorities, introduced the strictest savings measures, closed and sold international businesses and also made all the necessary provisions for the loan portfolio and blocked assets," Gref said in a statement.
