Republic
10.10.2007
The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus sees no problems with the Belarusian banks getting external funds to give loans to individuals. The statement was made by Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Nikolai Luzgin on October 10.
In his words, the gap between the build-up of bank resources used for loans and the actual lending has been decreasing lately, which means that the demand of natural persons for loans is growing faster than their bank deposits. The fact drastically changes the banking system operation: individuals’ savings used to be the main source of the money Belarusian banks used to give loans while now the banks are vigorously seeking other sources, including external ones.
The official believes, Belarus’ sovereign credit rating will facilitate the borrowing of external resources for Belarusian banks. According to Nikolai Luzgin, at present the country’s banking system is attractive to foreign investments. Efforts are made to attract resources from European, Russian and Ukrainian banks.
Head of the Central Banking Supervision Department, member of the NBRB Board of Directors Sergei Dubkov remarked, before the year is out, OAO Lorobank, ZAO Delta Bank, OAO International Reserve Bank and other banks, which acquired large foreign financial institutions as shareholders this year, will start working on the lending market.
Sergei Dubkov also said natural persons who take loans in Belarus are very honest. The total share of problem liabilities among such borrowers makes some 0.13%. It is a very low figure, which is why this part of the Belarusian lending market is highly attractive.