Sberbank to allot 7 percent of its net profits for dividends

In 2002, Sberbank will allocate 7 percent of its net profits for paying dividends, president and CEO of the bank Alexey Kazmin reported at the forum "The Banking Sector and the Market of Fixed Income in Russia" today. According to him, this decision was made at a meeting of Sberbank's supervisory board. In 2001, the bank allotted 6 percent of its net profits, which amounted to RUR17.5bn (about $552.10m) according to Russian accounting standards, for paying dividends. At the same time, Kazmin pointed out that "we are expecting a 25-percent increase in net profits in 2002".

Additionally, Sberbank's head reported that in the middle of this year, the capital of the credit institution had reached $3.5bn. The major source for the growth of own funds was capitalization of earnings. Sberbank's assets were $31bn; according to Kazmin, this is 26 percent of cumulative assets of Russian banks.

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