(For other news from the Reuters Russia Investment Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/RussiaInvestment09?PID=500)
* Rouble deposits grow month-to-month at single-digit rate
* No major collateral foreclosures on corporate loans
* 60,000 new credit cards issued in Russia this year
* $20 million new retail loans per month at present
By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW, Sept 15 (Reuters) - After plunging during the global credit crisis, rouble deposits at Citibank's Russian arm have resumed rising, underlining a return of confidence in the local economy, the bank's Russia president said on Tuesday.
Deposits of roubles at the bank slid early this year as retail customers, alarmed by the depreciation of the currency, which lost around 40 percent of its value versus the dollar during a slow burn devaluation.
This forced Russians to shift their savings into the dollar, which was seen as a safe haven during a time of instability in the global financial market.
Money began moving back into roubles towards the end of the second quarter, however, after the currency regained stability and the global crisis started to ease, Zdenek Turek said in an interview at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.
"From the bottom, which for us was about January to February this year, we have managed to double the amount of rouble deposits," said Turek, a 20-year Citigroup veteran who took his post in January, transferring from South Africa.
He declined to give specific numbers, but estimated rouble deposits at Citibank were now growing at a single-digit rate month-to-month. "Now, more or less, from our point of view, things are back to normal," he said.
In the Russian banking system as a whole, rouble-denominated retail deposits for terms of up to 30 days slumped to 729.4 billion roubles ($23.6 billion) on April 1 this year, from 840.0 billion on Jan. 1, but had rebounded to 855.9 billion by Aug. 1, according to central bank data.
RECOVERY
Turek said the recovery of rouble deposits and a range of other data indicated Russia's economy, which shrank 10.1 percent in the first half of this year, in terms of gross domestic product, had stabilised and started to improve.
"We have seen positive trends in industrial production, we have seen positive trends in GDP month-on-month in June and July, so we have reasons to believe the economy has stabilised and started to grow."
With 58 branches and 3,000 employees, Citibank's Russian arm has issued 60,000 new credit cards so far this year and is now extending $20 million of new retail loans per month, Turek said.
Conditions in Russia's interbank money market have become "much better" after activity partially froze at the height of the crisis, he said.
Although Citibank suffered a rise in its non-performing corporate loans in Russia, the increase was less than originally feared, Turek said.
"On our portfolio of loans and credit cards, we did see an increase in non-performance, but less than anticipated, frankly, and for existing loans, we restructured with many of the clients very actively."
While some banks in Russia have been stuck with collateral that they have difficulty liquidating, Citibank has generally not faced this dilemma, Turek said.
"Our lending was always on the cashflow basis. When we give people money, we want to see their capital, we want to see the business strategy and the cashflows and we never provide too much emphasis on collateral.
"We don't have a particular experience with foreclosing and realising the collateral, yet. We focussed on restoring the cashflow generation of the company, restoring the profitability rather than trying to seize and realise the collateral."
RISKS
However, Turek said it was "too early to declare a victory, there are still factors, external, that can disrupt the recovery."
"We do need to see internal demand picking up ... but there is a modest optimism, a cautious optimism in the market."
"The government has addressed the situation in 2009 very well, but there is still the question of the situation in the medium and longer term." (For summit blog: http://summitnotebook.reuters.com/) ($1 = 30.85 roubles) (Editing by Andrew Torchia and Simon Jessop)