Sberbank Serbia 2012 gross profit at about EUR 12 million

Sberbank Serbia has said in a release that its gross profit in 2012 exceeded EUR 12 million.

According to that release, Sberbank's total assets at the end of 2012 were valued at EUR 902 million, with the amount of approved loans increased from EUR 567 million in 2011 to EUR 736 million in 2012.

The release adds that the new president of Sberbank Serbia, Valery Ovsyanik, has met with the ambassador of Russian Federation to Belgrade, Alexander Chepurin, who has assessed that the operations of that bank serve as the basis for the business success of Russian companies in the Balkans.

The theme of that meeting was the functioning of Serbia's banking sector and the arrival of Sberbank, the largest Russian bank, in Serbia.

Ovsyanik has pointed out that the possibility of making transactions in Russian rubles in Serbia through Sberbank was an important step in the strengthening of relations between the two countries.

Russia's Sberbank took over the offices of Austria's Volksbank in southeast Europe in February 2012. Sberbank has been operating under this name in Serbia since 24 December 2012.