In Q3 2013, the banking sector faced a shortage of customer resources. The major source of liabilities became refinancing on the part of the Bank of Russia and MinFin's deposits. Meanwhile, by results of the lending market's performance in Q3, it was for the first time this year that lending to...

In August 2013, Russia's banking sector witnessed a continuation of the trends observed over the several previous months. As in July, a considerable proportion of growth in total banking liabilities was accounted for by the Bank of Russia and the RF Ministry of Finance. The role of retail loans...

In July 2013, the bulk of banks' lending operations shifted towards corporate loans: the growth rate of debt against loans issued to companies for the first time over several months in a row became noticeably higher than that of the retail credit portfolio. The shrinkage of monies on corporate...

In H1 2013, the Russian banking sector focused basically on the retail sector. Household bank deposits accounted for almost 40% of increased liabilities, whereas for 33% of increased assets. Corporate loans accounted for as little as 25% of increased assets. Furthermore, retail loan yields hit...

Banks' assets grew at a rate of 20.1% in May 2013, being a slightly lower than in 2011 and 2012. In May, financial result of the banking business was found to be minimal since the fall of 2011. Household savings on bank accounts and deposits slowed down rapidly after three months of growth. A...

In April 2013, the Russian banking sector was driven by the same principal trends that were observed in the first quarter of the year. Real sector lending kept slowing down in spite of higher growth rates in household savings. In addition, allowances for provisions for losses on loans and other...

In April 2014, Russia's banking sector witnessed a continuation of the trends observed over the several previous months: the share of state-owned banks continued to increase in all major segments of the banking services market; the growth rate of retail lending remained on the decline, while the...

Substantial outflow of retail deposits from the banking sector in Q1 2014 forced banks to increase their liability to the regulators – the Central Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance – reaching record values. The quality of the retail credit portfolio keeps deteriorating while the...

In the first months of 2014 the focus of active operations of banks has been the build-up of foreign assets as a result of the dollarisation of their domestic liabilities. At the same time there was a considerable decrease in household savings deposits with banks compared with last year. The...