An extensive sales network, an opportunity to make deposits online, a high quality of services, reliability, a wide range of deposit options and competitive interest rates provide the Bank with a continuously increasing number of loyal customers and a steadily broadening deposit base.

According to the Interfax agency, the Bank ranks 15th among Russian banks by total retail deposits as of January 1, 2022.

In order to increase its customer base and attract additional deposit inflow, the Bank offered its customers a choice of several seasonal deposits with historically high interest rates in 2021. Customers receiving their pensions through the Bank enjoyed increased deposit rates on several deposits.

The Bank’s customers also have an opportunity to make deposits online. Online deposits accounted for 79% of retail deposits placed in 2021.

Dynamics of Retail Customer Deposits, RUB bn

One of the priority areas for the Bank’s retail business is the issuance of bank cards and the provision of related services. As of January 1, 2022, a total number of all types of plastic bank cards issued reached 1 518 000. The Bank has also seen an annual increase in the number of its payroll customers: over 8 900 payroll programs with over 600 000 active payroll cards as of January 1, 2022.

To ensure compliance with the Federal Law on the National Payment System, the Bank issued more than 153 000 MIR cards in 2021.

Over the recent years Bank “Saint Petersburg” stood as the leading operator of the “Resident ID card” project (EKP). This is a priority project of Saint Petersburg government. The smart-card combines cutting-edge payment tool based on MIR payment system, loyalty program card, and local transport pass. EKP also contains personal data of its holder: photo, date of birth, social system number, including qualified digital signature. The processing employs unique and independent Russian technologies in full compliance with world-class security standards.

In 2021, the Bank significantly expanded the possibilities for convenient and fast transfer to legal entities and individuals. At the beginning of the year, fast payment in digital channels became available to more than 6.2 thousand organizations in the housing and utilities sector and telecommunications services.

The audience of customers active in digital channels increased by 13% and amounted to 612 000 users in December, while the number of transfers made almost tripled and in December for the first time exceeded 3.1 mln transactions per month.

The number of users of the mobile application grew throughout 2021 at a fast pace and amounted to 548 000 people in December, which is 20% more than the figure as of the year beginning. The number of transfers made by these customers tripled, reaching 2.8 mln operations per month.

In 2021, the Bank launched a bunch of products and services for the self-employed — a new customer segment comprised of individuals who earn professional income from activities that have neither an employer nor workers hired under employment contracts, or income from the use of property.

With our services for the self-employed, a client can:

• get registered online on the Government Services Portal for user-friendly registration in the Moi Nalog (My Tax) application of the Federal Tax Service;
• order a card that will best suit them, choosing from our wide range of bank cards;
• use our free courier delivery of cards;
• enjoy up to 20% bonus awards on the YARKO loyalty program for their purchases;
• receive a professional income tax refund through the YARKO loyalty program;
• get an individual consultation to find answers to any question they have or obtain any other relevant information.
• consumer and mortgage lending is available for customers with standard product lines.

The Bank is represented by six Mortgage Lending Centers (four in St. Petersburg, one in Moscow and one in Kaliningrad). Also mortgage lending is available in the Novosibirsk branсh. In the Mortgage Lending Centers customers can get detailed advice on all mortgage lending programs available and obtain an estimated calculation of the amount and maturity, as well as apply for a mortgage loan. A dedicated loan officer supports each customer throughout the entire process. As an additional convenience for the customers and a way to ensure confidentiality, each center has a separate meeting room; the Bank’s outlets also have depository areas for transactions using safe deposit boxes.

The Bank ranks 3rd among all local banks and 1st among private banks in St. Petersburg’s mortgage lending market. Throughout 2020, the Bank provided a total of RUB 37.9 bn in the form of 10 014 loans, compared to RUB 36.1 bn and 11 978 loans in the previous year. 63% of the total mortgage loan portfolio consisted of mortgage loans for newly constructed buildings.

The Bank is continuing its productive cooperation with construction companies and real estate agencies. By the end of 2021, more than 600 developers and over 1 100 construction projects received the Bank’s accreditation. Customers can receive mortgage-related advice and apply for a mortgage loan at the Bank’s representative desks located in the offices of its partner companies.

In 2021 the Bank lowered the interest rate for the “Family mortgage” down to 5%. Other requirements for the program remained unchanged: families with children can apply for the mortgage up to 30 years. Families with a child born between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2022, may now also apply for the program.

The Bank also offers smart mortgage, including the service of real estate evaluation and online-processing of documents by Rosreestr. It speeds up the process two or three times, while the digital signature for the customer takes only few minutes to prepare.

By the end of December 2021, the Bank opened over 6 300 escrow accounts within real estate transactions under sale and purchase contracts and concession agreements between individuals. Bank Saint Petersburg was one of the first banks in the country to introduce an escrow account system for both mortgage lending and real estate transactions without the Bank’s mortgage. This form of settlement implies placement of the buyer’s cash funds on a special-purpose escrow account opened under a trilateral agreement, and transfer of the transaction amount is made available only after all terms and conditions of the agreement are met.

Also, in 2021, the Bank opened more than 4 000 escrow accounts for the purposes of payments between a participant of share-equity construction, of the one part, and a developer, of the other, under co-investment contracts under Federal Law No. 214-FZ.

The Bank launched a real estate showcase on its website, where developers offer more than 3 000 residential facilities. Almost all of the projects under construction in St. Petersburg, Leningrad Region and Kaliningrad, have been accredited for mortgage loans by the Bank. In addition to residential construction projects, the real estate showcase will help the Bank’s clients to select an apartment on the secondary market from among more than 1.2 mln available options.

The service hosted on dom.bspb.ru is provided by the Bank in cooperation with CIAN, a major online real estate marketplace. The real estate showcase will help you find an apartment for your approved mortgage loan. You can also go the other way round: choose a real estate property and immediately submit a mortgage application. Besides, the website provides you with the point-and-click access to the Bank’s operators and mortgage advisors who can help you navigate through the real estate showcase to make the right choice or advise you on what to do further, how to make an application, what documents you need for making a transaction and getting a loan, and so on.

Bank Saint Petersburg takes a conservative approach to risk and offers consumer loans only to the existing customer base. The target segment for the unsecured lending program is still represented by the customers holding the Bank’s payroll cards, whose financial position is well known to the Bank. 85% of the unsecured loan portfolio is attributed to payroll cardholders. The Bank also offers loans to customers who have a good profile with the Bank or are employed by reliable partner entities.

This approach has proved to be the most efficient one. First of all, targeted work with customers and forecasting their individual needs warrant a more sizeable response. The second advantage is that the Bank can take a cautious approach to new borrowers and accept only measured risks of the external unsecured lending market, having customers whose financial position it can assess most efficiently.

Bank Saint Petersburg continues to maintain and improve the technology of issuing consumer loans, which significantly saves the customers time, as it implies the full remote receipt of loans. Internet Bank users can not only sign an agreement and receive money into an account through a personal account on a proposal approved by the Bank, but also make an application on their own, and track the course of its consideration.

Bank Saint Petersburg has expanded capabilities of its Time is Money lending product involving deposit secured loans for retail clients. Now, a loan can be issued to any client of the Bank who is willing to put up their valid deposit or promissory note as collateral. So, if a client urgently needs money for any purpose, there is no need to close their term deposit prematurely and thus lose interest on it, but instead they can obtain a loan for the required amount secured by their deposit. What is particularly important about the Time is Money loans is that decisions are made quickly (you can borrow within a day) and the terms are quite simple — all you need is just a couple of documents, including an application, passport, and promissory note to be put up as collateral, if any.

The Bank is in the top 3 of St. Petersburg market leaders in terms of consumer lending, and in the top 10 in terms of credit cards.

2021 was a good year in terms of refinancing loans at Bank Saint Petersburg. The loans refinanced by the Bank allow customers to optimize the debt burden by reducing the amount of monthly payments and reducing the overpayment on loans of other banks.

Improvement efforts in 2021 were focused on scaling unsecured lending which allowed to increase the loan portfolio in low-risk customer segments. The Bank will continue to enlarge the customer base and maximize its potential by improving the quality of customer service.