Russia’s Vozrozhdenie Bank has posted a 1H 2009 Net Profit of 642 million Roubles under IFRS.

The Net result is down from the 1.559 billion Rouble Net Profit posted for 1H 2008, with Vozrozhdenie Bank’s loan book falling 6% over the half from 31 December 2008, to 90.6 billion Roubles, as customer accounts rose to 7% to 96.1 billion Roubles, over the same period, and loans provisions increased to 7.5 billion Roubles

Despite the sharp fall in net result, Deputy Chairwoman, Tatiana Gavrilkina, noted that the figures showed the impact of Russia’s economic downturn and also underlined the soundness of Vozrozhdenie Bank’s cautious lending approach.

“Credit quality management and maintaining current business volumes were the special focus of the bank over the past 6 months. A conservative approach to borrower selection and issuing new loans predetermined some reduction of the loan book within the quarter. That could not help but influence interest income. We continued to funnel a significant portion of revenues into provisions for loan impairment and it affected the bottom line.”