May 13, 2014. Bank Home Credit is trying to optimize its assets and is going to reduce the number of branches it operates in Sverdlovsk Region form 44 to 36. The employees of the closing-down branches will have to undergo an evaluation procedure, based on which they will be offered positions in other branches, points of sale, or back office, the Director of Bank Home Credit’s Ural Directorate Mikhail Balabanov told UrBC.

‘Prior to the completion of our assessment and optimization procedure it’s too early to say how many employees will actually leave the company,’ Balabanov said.

The bank’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Ivan Svitek actually said in his interview to RBC earlier that the chain would have to shrink by 8% and some 200 branches would have to be closed.

Balabanov pointed out that the retail lending market growth rate was actually slowing down. In the first quarter of 2014, retail lending went up by 2.7% (this is 57.4% slower than a year earlier), which was related both to an economic downfall and a number of regulatory procedures introduced in 2013.

‘We now have to bring the size of our chain in correlation with the declining market,’ he explained.

‘We are closing down the offices that are located near our other branches to make sure our customers still find it convenient to use our services. Residents of Sverdlovsk Region are still welcome to use 27 more micro-branches; our bank keeps opening deposits and issuing loans as usual. Our customers can get a full range of banking services in any branch that is currently operating in this city,’ Balabanov said.