On its own, the Russian market, already the region’s biggest, has become even more important to regional banks’ profitability. And Sberbank is more profitable than ever before in its domestic market, where its market share of deposits is still more than 40% and its annual profits more than $10 billion. Russia was crucial for Raiffeisen, last year’s winner of the regional best bank award, in posting slightly higher regional profit. Despite large market shares elsewhere, Russia made up almost two-thirds of Raiffeisen’s regional profit. |