Russia's TCS posts record quarterly net profit of 2.5 bln roubles

* TCS (LSE: TCS.L - news) posts 2.5 bln roubles in second-quarter net profit

* Record (LSE: REC.L - news) profits also beat analyst forecasts

* Net (LSE: 0LN0.L - news) interest income up 48 pct year-on-year

* State-owned rival Sberbank also made record profit

By Kira Zavyalova

MOSCOW, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Russian consumer lender TCS Group reported a record quarterly net profit for the three months to the end of June on Tuesday thanks to an improvement in profitability and a lower cost of risk.

At 2.5 billion roubles ($38.6 million), its quarterly net profit came in well above the average 2 billion forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts, and was up from just 0.4 billion roubles in the same period a year ago.

Russia's banking sector was hit hard by a weak rouble and Western sanctions which limited ability to raise funds abroad or made borrowing costs too high, forcing the state to recapitalise some of its biggest banks to keep the system alive.

TCS, one of Russia's 50 biggest banks by assets, is 52-percent owned by Oleg Tinkov, a former professional cyclist who owns the Tinkoff cycling team, with small stakes in the bank also being held by investment funds and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) .

The bank runs a different business model to most of its rivals by just targeting Russian retail clients and operating chiefly online, or by offering its credit cards to customers at the grocery store counters.

The bank said net interest income rose 48 percent year-on-year to 9.3 billion roubles. Its net interest margin - a measure of profitability showing the difference between deposit and lending rates - was 29.6 percent, or a rise of 400 basis points.

It said its cost of risk was down to 7.7 percent in the second quarter from 16.4 percent in the same period a year ago, which also boosted profits.

"Credit cards margin was up by 1 percentage point which was likely driven by active lending. At the same time, deposits became cheaper," Uralsib analyst Natalia Berezina said, adding that there was also an improvement in credit card loans.

TCS is a relatively small player in the Russian banking sector but one of a few listed banks. It is the second-biggest player in the credit card market with a share of just under 10 percent, behind Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank.

Last month, Sberbank posted a second-quarter net profit of 145 billion roubles, also setting a new record on the back of stronger interest income and lower risk costs.

VTB, Russia's second biggest bank, is on track to meet its optimistic scenario with net profit of 50 billion roubles this year, rather than the pessimistic one with profit near to zero, Chief Executive Andrei Kostin said last week.

"Some improvement in the overall picture is being seen. The worst is behind," Uralsib's Berezina said.

($1 = 64.8099 roubles) (Writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by David Clarke)