Financial Times FT.com

Russian lenders diverted by lucrative rouble devaluation

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: February 11 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 11 2009 02:00

When Vladimir Putin last week agreed to inject at least another Rbs400bn ($11.2bn) in state funds into two of Russia's biggest state-owned banks, as well as possibly the biggest private banks, the Russian prime minister called on the banks to increase lending in return.

"The pace of growth of lending is not yet good enough," he said. "Our next task is to increase this pace."

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