MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - Sberbank, Russia's largest savings bank, said on Monday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards declined by about 92%, year-on-year, to 6.8 billion rubles ($260 million) in January-July 2009.
Pre-tax profit during the same period also decreased 92% to 8.9 billion rubles ($283.5 mln).
The bank attributes the drop in profits to an eightfold increase in expenditure on building up reserves to offset potential losses resulting from the ongoing economic crisis.
The bank's reserves for potential losses from unpaid loans rose 88% to 432.9 billion rubles ($13.8 bln) during January-June.
