Sberbank Weighs Loan-Loss Reserves After Wildberries Drone Strikes

Chief Financial Officer Taras Skvortsov confirmed that the bank is reviewing its exposure, noting that the financial health and future cash flow of many online retailers have diminished. While no formal decision on increasing provisions has been reached, the bank has launched a restructuring program specifically for affected Wildberries partners. Despite the volatility, Sberbank maintains that the company and its vendors possess enough resilience to weather the current operational disruption.

The strikes have damaged at least seven warehouses, effectively wiping out 10% of Wildberries' total storage capacity. Beyond the immediate inventory loss, the attacks have disrupted tens of thousands of small businesses that rely on the platform to reach customers. Ukrainian officials have explicitly linked the targeting of the retail giant to its economic prominence and its role in supplying the Russian military.

Sberbank reported a 21% increase in second-quarter net profit and still expects record gains for the full year. However, the bank has tempered its long-term outlook, slashing its 2026 Russian economic growth forecast to a range of zero to 0.5%. Executives are now closely monitoring sectors like small business, where the secondary impacts of the warehouse attacks remain most acute.