Penza, 25 December 2014. PenzaNews. Top management members of the Volga branch of the Sberbank of Russia answered urgent and stressing economy answers to regional journalists during a press conference on Wednesday, December 24. The event was a part of a large video conference that involved the chairman of the Volga Sberbank Vladimir Sitnov and representatives of head bank offices in the region.

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According to him, last week Sberbank, like many other commercial banks, experienced big increase in demand for cash money and foreign currency, but managed to fully satisfy the requests.

The top manager also informed of changes in terms for new loans, clarifying that credit interest rate is still set below the interest rate of the Bank of Russia.

Vladimir Sitnov answered questions asked by journalists from Samara, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk and Saratov during the video conference, as well as Penza. Among the raised topics was the rumor of possible blocks and withdrawal limits for credit and debit cards: Vladimir Sitnov said the bank did not and will not introduce any limitations or blocks in this respect.

After the conference, representatives of the regional media asked questions to representatives of the Penza Sberbank office, such as Anna Egorova, head of partner relations department. Among other questions, the journalists asked more information about increased interest rates for deposits and loans, speed of registration, and the New Year schedule.

Anna Egorova said clients are as active as before both in deposit and loan departments, despite interest changes introduced on December 22-23.

“We are fairly active recently,” she mentioned, adding that Sberbank, as usually, opens for clients only a few days after January 1.

The journalists also paid attention to issues of mortgage and numerous bank frauds.

“We had a joint briefing session with internal security officials. The fraudsters are employing social engineering methods: the person receives an SMS, and he gives all information away to them by following the instructions. If you receive a message from an unidentified number or number that resembles ‘900,’ call one of the numbers on the back side of your credit or debit card – this is our information service. Using it, you can learn whether your card is really blocked. Never call the fraudsters back. If you are not too far from an ATM, check your card,” advised Evgeny Romanov, head of anti-fraud sector of security department in the Penza Sberbank office.

He also advised the Mobile Bank clients to protect their smartphones from viral threats.