Sberbank expects profits to recover and bad loan provisions to peak next year but still plans to slash up to a quarter of its work force by 2014, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

"Due to an improvement in productivity, we will have the possibility over 5 years to optimize staff by 20 to 25 percent," said Denis Bugrov, a member of Sberbank's management board.

"We confirm that this task is realistic."

He also said Sberbank was happy with the progress of talks over the possible acquisition of Kazakh BTA Bank, but no decision has yet been taken on the deal.

Sberbank's business plan for this year sees staff being cut by 10 percent, or about 27,000 people.