As of March 1 the Tver Carriage Plant (TVZ), which employs a workforce of 10,000, has been shifted to a three-day week, and workers' wages have been cut making it a problem for them to pay back their credits. On Wednesday the Prime Minister came to the rescue of the workers and the people in the region. "I talked with the head of Sberbank on my way here. He will give instructions to the Tver branch to carry out a total restructuring. He will do it today," Mr Putin promised.
So far no instructions have come from Moscow to restructure the loans of TVZ employees, the credit inspector of the Tver branch (part of the Srednerussky Bank under Sberbank) said on Friday. Applications for restructuring could be filed but they would all be considered on a case-by-case basis," she explained. "The agreements were not signed with him [Mr Putin] but with the bank."
The manager for loans to natural persons told our correspondent on Saturday that the bank had not received orders to restructure the loans. Until recently about five applications for rescheduling were filed every day, mainly by TVZ workers, but after Mr Putin's visit no more applications have been filed, she said.
"Sberbank's Srednerussky Bank is ready to reschedule consumer and, starting from May, mortgage loans in accordance with the bank's rules. A letter to the effect is shortly to be sent to the Governor of Tver Region, Dmitry Zelenin, a spokesman for Sberbank said. Vedomosti has been unable to contact Mr Zelenin as his telephone did not answer starting from Friday.
So far 30 applications for loan rescheduling have been filed with the Tver branch, of which 20 came from TVZ employees: 10 on consumer loans and 10 on mortgage loans, a spokesman for Srednerussky Bank said on Thursday. He could not say whether the applications were granted, but at midweek the Tver branch credit inspector said that "tens" of credits had been rescheduled.
All told, Sberbank rescheduled about 800 loans during the first quarter granting the borrowers a deferment of 1 year, almost all of them were consumer loans intended to meet pressing needs that are routinely issued for a term of up to 5 years, deputy chairman of Sberbank board, Dmitry Davydov, told Vedomosti. A further 1,600 loans worth 2.625 billion roubles have been converted from currency into roubles. Practically no applications for rescheduling have been turned down, Mr Davydov claims. Sberbank's retail portfolio stood at 1.209 trillion roubles as of April 1.
A spokesman for VTB24 refused to disclose rescheduling statistics.
Alfa-Bank (retail portfolio of $2.7 billion according to ISAR on December 31, 2008) rescheduled about 200 loans to natural persons worth several million roubles, a member of the bank's board Alexei Marei conveyed through the press service. Almost all the loans were taken out to meet pressing needs and to buy 20-30 credit cards. The restructuring method is to cut the monthly payment. More than 60% of applications have been turned down because the events declared in the documents (the borrower's loss of job, etc) had not actually taken place, Mr Marei explains.
By Anna Baraulina
