TIMELINE-Russian banks struggle with bad loans

MOSCOW Oct 26 (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 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 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]

OCTOBER

Oct 15 - Russia's top 20 banks had restructured about 26 percent of loans to their largest borrowers by Sept. 1 [ID:nLF592601]

Oct 21 - Russia's central bank has conducted a series of banking stress tests which showed no major threat to the system [ID:nLL682825]

- VTB (VTBR.MM) posted a net loss of 11.0 billion roubles ($374.8 million) in Q2 2009, while signalling the worst is over. [ID:nLL696643] (Compiled by Dmitry Sergeyev; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)