Sberbank has no plans to write off a 150 billion ruble ($2 billion) state subordinated loan secured during the financial crisis of 2008-09, Russia’s top bank said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Sources told Reuters on Monday that Sberbank had secured the right under certain conditions to write off the loan initially raised from the central bank. Sberbank confirmed to Reuters that this was correct.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, Sberbank said that it was servicing the loan and would continue to do so, and had no plans to write it off.
“Under the Basel requirements, for the subordinated loan to be included to the capital it has to have a write-off clause in case of crisis events whose possibility is very low,” Sberbank said. “A write-off is no more than a hypothetical option needed to formally meet the Basel requirements.”
The government, which is allocating additional funds to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, has stayed away from any direct support for domestic banks.
Instead, the central bank has temporary relaxed some supervision rules.
