Sberbank Kazakhstan sells its loan portfolio

As the Halyk Bank’s call center told the Kursiv.media, it has bought Sber’s car loans portfolio and is now working on debt assumption. However, Sberbank refused to confirm this.

«Clients should make payments as usual. When their debt is sold to Halyk or any other bank, nothing will change for them,» a Sber’s representative said.

Some of the clients of Sber have already been informed about the assignment of rights. «Sberbank notifies you about the upcoming assignment of rights with no changes in loans conditions. Your data will be processed due to the upcoming assignment of rights. Once the procedure is done, we will send you a letter. If you have any questions, please contact us,» Sber said in the official statement.

The call center of Halyk Bank said that the only portfolio the bank has bought is the car loans portfolio. As of late September 2021, this type of loan accounts for $335.5 million or 7% of the loan portfolio.

The loan portfolio of Sber consists of business loans (50%), mortgages (22%) and retail loans for individuals (20.3%).

According to the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the loan portfolio of Sber has decreased since February. Over just one month the bank’s loan portfolio dropped by $664.4 million and reached $53.6 billion.

In terms of assets, Sberbank is now ranked third, not second as it was before. In February, the bank lost $1 billion of assets which are now estimated at $82.7 billion.

On April 6, Kazakhstan subsidiaries of Sber and Alfa Bank became a target for sanctions by key Western countries. For example, all assets of both banks have been blocked in the U.S. while no American entity or individual can interact with these banks.

However, Sber insists that it is working as usual and does not plan to leave the Kazakhstani market.