Putin holds meeting with VTB head

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with President and Chairman of the VTB Bank Management Board Andrei Kostin to discuss the bank’s performance last year, mortgage lending and housing construction financing, according to the Kremlin website.

"The year 2018 was quite successful for the VTB Group. Our net profits calculated under Russian Accounting Standards increased by 130% to 231 billion rubles. According to International Financial Reporting Standards, they grew by 50% to 180 billion rubles," Kostin said at the meeting.

He added that VTB's corporate loans portfolio increased by 15% over the year and reached 8.4 trillion rubles. SME loans were growing especially rapidly; the growth was 20%.

"Overall, our performance last year was satisfactory. We hope to keep up this positive trend this year," the VTB head added.