Moscow-based Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, reported a 20.4% year-on-year increase in first-half net profit to 995.3 billion roubles under Russian accounting standards, driven by a sharp rise in net interest income and a late-quarter surge in mortgage lending. The bank’s retail loan portfolio expanded by 1.6% in June alone, with housing loans growing 1.7% as households moved to secure state-subsidised family mortgages ahead of expected changes to the programme’s terms after October 2026. Chief executive German Gref attributed the credit growth to “elevated demand for preferential mortgages under state programmes amid expectations of changes in their conditions.”

The mortgage-driven retail credit expansion was not confined to Sberbank. Russia’s central bank noted that overall retail lending activity remained high in June, partly because of fears that the family mortgage scheme would be altered. Corporate lending, however, slowed, with the central bank reporting a deceleration in the growth of claims on organisations. Household deposits, which had contracted in May due to seasonal spending and declining short-term deposit rates, resumed inflows in June, mainly into current accounts. The central bank’s commentary highlighted that annual growth of claims on households accelerated to 4.8% in May, while corporate lending growth reached 11.8% year-on-year before easing in June.

Separately, Milan-based ION Platform, the main operating company of the ION group controlled by Italian financier Andrea Pignataro, reported second-quarter revenues of $634.5 million, a 5.1% increase from a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $448.2 million, and net profit nearly doubled from the previous quarter to $150.1 million. The group said it had achieved 77% of a $357 million synergy programme launched after a refinancing in October 2025, helping to reduce pro forma net leverage to 5.92 times from 6.04 times in the first quarter. Distributions to the parent company were cut to $53 million from $314 million, and the company bought back about $250 million of its own debt in the first half.

The next milestone for Russian credit markets is the October 2026 deadline, when the terms of the family mortgage programme are set to be reviewed, a date that has already pulled forward demand. For ION Platform, the focus remains on completing the remaining synergies and further reducing leverage, with pro forma adjusted EBITDA of the last twelve months reaching $1.86 billion. Sberbank’s shareholders have approved a record dividend of 37.64 roubles per share, a payout that will return 850 billion roubles to investors and test the bank’s capital position as credit growth moderates.