VTB (unconsolidated RAS) has reported a net profit of RUB 16.75bn for the month of July, bringing down the loss for 7M09 to RUB 9.7bn. The earnings improvement has been attributed mainly to the receipt of dividend income and other one-off income from the bank’s subsidiaries. At the same time, provisioning continued to rise and reached 5% of the bank’s corporate loan book. Our view: Whilst the profit for the month is positive, the drivers appear to be largely non-recurrent, suggesting the bank is likely to shift back into negative territory in months ahead. Monthly results under RAS unconsolidated reporting tend to be volatile, thus the trading impact is limited.