Rusipoteka.ru, the information and analytics portal on mortgage lending and securitization, published some data on the largest Russian banks’ activity on October 22, 2007. These banks have issued at least 750,000 mortgages to their customers by July 1, 2007. The state-run Sberbank is definitely the most powerful player in this field, as it is responsible for two-thirds of all mortgages offered to borrowers in this country.

On the other hand, some smaller regional banks have been fairly successful as well. SKB-Bank, for instance, was rated Russia’s 25th largest mortgage-giver.

'The lending business in Russia is bound to keep developing despite the global financial market crisis,’ SKB-Bank’s experts report.

'As far as our bank is concerned, nothing has changed and the number of borrowers has even soared over the last two months. I don’t think it’s right to speak of a direct link between the mortgage crisis in the West and the slowing down of our own market,’ says SKB-Bank’s Mortgage Lending Director Anna Samuilova.