TIMELINE-Russian banks struggle with bad loans

MOSCOW Oct 5 (Reuters) - Russian banks could be forced to make provisions of $45 billion in 2009 should bad loans rise to 10 percent of their overall credit portfolio, wiping out profits in the banking sector.

Following is a chronology of recent key events in the sector:

MAY

May 19 - Problem loans could soar to 35 to 50 percent of total lending in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, Standard & Poor's says. [ID:nLJ957879]

JUNE

June 1 - Russian banks may need to be recapitalised with around 1.3 trillion roubles ($43.25 billion) in 2009, Moody's says. [ID:nL1554029]

June 5 - President Dmitry Medvedev rules out creating a "bad bank" to clean up bad loans. [ID:nL534983]

June 19 - VTB says bad debts could rise to $9 billion by June 2010. [ID:nLJ543168]

June 29 - VTB says will likely make a loss this year. [ID:nLT624294] [ID:nLT718543] [ID:nLT16910]

June 30 - Alfa Bank President Pyotr Aven says defaults may hit $130 billion in the next 12 months. [ID:nLU501949]

- Russian banks require $20 billion to $80 billion in additional capital within a year as NPLs will reach 15 to 40 percent of banks' loan portfolios by year-end, Fitch says. [ID:nLU368648]

JULY

July 9 - Russia says it will spend 150 billion roubles in 2009 and 310 billion in 2010 on recapitalising banks via OFZ treasury bills. [ID:nL9317896]

July 14 - Sberbank restructures 6.5 percent of its corporate loan portfolio and 5 percent of retail loans. [ID:nLE295374]

July 22 - Oleg Vyugin, chairman of MDM bank, says bad loan levels are already 10 percent in the banking system [ID:nLM83854]

AUGUST

Aug 4 - VTB reports a worse-than-expected net loss in Q1 [ID:nL4371084]

Aug 27 - Sberbank will complete and sell real estate projects it has accumulated as non-performing loans rise and it forecloses on pledged assets [ID:nLR76657]

Aug 28 - Russian officials cut forecasts for banks' bad loans to less than 10 percent by the year-end and said state help for the sector could be scaled back. [ID:nLR695672]

SEPTEMBER

Sept 7 - VTB sells 41.5 pct of new share issue for 180.03 billion roubles ($5.7 billion) to the state. [ID:nL0449822]

Sept 11 - The state is unlikely to buy into privately owned banks, says central bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev. [ID:nLB635152]

Sept 16 - Russian companies have restructured the lion's share of problem debts but the issue will stay on the 2010 agenda, the local head of Raiffeisen RIBH.VI says. [ID:nLG149961]

Sept 19 - Sberbank says it hopes to sell assets acquired through unpaid loans during the crisis within three years. [ID:nLJ444394]

Sept 21 - Sberbank SBER03.MM says it expects provisions to rise above the forecast of 10 percent in 2009 [ID:nNLP502374]

Sept 30 - Central bank chairman Sergei Ignatyev says the Russian banking system as a whole will likely end 2009 in the black, and Russia's Alfa Bank backtracks from an earlier gloomy prognosis and says "there is no danger of catastrophe" for the financial system. [ID:nLU343674] (Compiled by Dmitry Sergeyev, editing by Will Waterman) ($1=30.06 Rouble)