Last year, the portion of outstanding debt on loans extended to individuals rose from 1.4% to 1.9%, Sergei Ignatyev told a session of the Advisory Board on Foreign Investment.
Ignatyev also said loans issued to individuals accounted for over 20% of the total volume of loans. He said the volume of mortgage loans had doubled in the first six months of 2006, but their share in the loan portfolios of banks remained small.
The CBR chairman also said the country's banking system was "gradually being freed" from financial institutions with dubious operations.
Since the beginning of 2006, 52 financial institutions have been stripped of their licenses, largely for violations of laws on money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the Central Bank chief said.
