Absolut Bank (PAO) plans to sell parts of its mortgage portfolio amid increased interest from local lenders wanting to boost their market share in the segment, Kommersant reported Dec. 19.

The specialist mortgage lender currently issues around 4 billion Russian rubles worth of mortgage loans per month, and the value of such loans on its balance sheet exceeds 80 billion rubles, the Absolut's head Tatiana Ushkova said, adding that the lender would like to regularly resell around 40% of issued mortgages.

Absolut has divested mortgage loans worth more than 10 billion rubles so far in 2018 and is in the process of completing sale transactions for a similar amount. Absolut also recently sold a car loan portfolio worth 5 billion rubles, Ushkova told the newspaper.

The mortgage loans were purchased by local lenders, including JSC Alfa-Bank, PAO AK BARS Bank and JSC Bank SOYUZ, Kommersant reported.

As of Dec. 19, US$1 was equivalent to 67.57 Russian rubles.