In the decade following the 1998 financial crisis Russia’s banking system grew much larger and stronger – indeed, growth rates were dangerously high – but even before the onset of the current global crisis it continued to play a limited role in intermediating savings and investment,...

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...