Russian Standard back to black in Q1 after '09 loss

*Posts 2009 full-year loss of 4.5 bln rbls

*Q1 net profit at 1.08 bln rbls

*Wrote off 13.8 bln rbls worth of uncollectible loans

MOSCOW, April 29 (Reuters) - Russian Standard bank posted a net profit of 1.081 billion roubles in the first quarter after a heavy loss of $4.5 billion roubles for the full-year of 2009 as bad loans eased.

Russian banks have been hit hard by rising bad loans as the country's economy suffered its first contraction in a decade, but the sector shows solid signs of recovery starting from the fourth quarter of 2009.

The privately owned leader in consumer lending, ranked among Russia's top-30 banks in terms of assets, reported a net interest income after provision for loan impairment of 3.95 billion roubles in the first quarter versus 8.2 billion roubles for 2009.

The figures were disclosed in the bank report obtained by Reuters.

The bank wrote-off 13.8 billion roubles worth of uncollectible loans in 2009, and provisions for impairment loans reached 12.5 billion roubles comparing with 9.8 billion roubles as of the end of 2008.

The bank has not reported the results for the first quarter of 2009.

The Russian Standard loan portfolio declined by 4.8 percent in the first quarter to 88.4 billion roubles continuing the last year's trend when loans to customers plunged almost 38 percent from 224.8 billion roubles.

last year, consumer lenders had found their clients tighten their belts amid rising unemployment, slow-burn rouble devaluation and uncertainty about the way the country's oil-dependent economy went.

Nevertheless the times may change for the better this year while rouble keeps rising, oil prices are high and authorities proclaiming the crisis is over.

Russia's biggest lender Sberbank SBER03.MM has already said it expected the retail deposits to grow by 15-20 percent this year. [ID:nLDE6221GQ]

(Reporting by Dmitry Sergeyev and Oksana Kobzeva)