Page 97 - RusRPTJun21

April 2020 and supported the housing market with RUB1 trillion ($13.34bn) of mortgages issued, or over 80% of the primary market and 23% of all new mortgages.
The international money transfer messaging service SWIFT has promised the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) that it will not cut off its services, despite speculation that the West would include the ban has part of a proposed new tough sanction regime, the CBR said on May 19.
The Russian Central Bank does not see any risks of Russia being disconnected from SWIFT, said the first deputy chairperson of the Russian Central Bank, Olga Skorobogatova, during the meeting of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Markets.
"At first, they speculated a lot about SWIFT, then it spilled over to Visa and Mastercard. From SWIFT point of view, a similar situation was in 2014, when some EU deputies spoke about it. We have direct contact with SWIFT, their Moscow office and SWIFT's headquarters, and we have received a confirmation that SWIFT will operate on a regular basis, without any problems, and we do not see any risks at this time," Skorobogatova said, as cited by UAWire.
Talk of a SWIFT cut off has been around for years and Russia has long ago prepared for such an eventuality, by setting up the MIR payment system that mirrors the functions of SWIFT. It has also been in talks with countries like China that have also set up similar services due to similar fears to Russia of being cut off from SWIFT if relations with the US sour.
Moreover, the CBR has already put in place other alternatives to ensure the smooth transfer of money in the event of being cut off from SWIFT.
“Intra-Russian bank wire transfers can be easily transferred to Russia’s Financial Message System (SPFS),” Skorobogatova. “As for the cards, we have NCPC (National Payment Card System), which gives the ability to handle all operations inside Russia.”
Mortgage growth accelerated again in the early part of the year, and in March banks granted new mortgages for RUB500bn, which is 52% more than a year earlier.
In January-March, new mortgage loans were granted RUB1,160bn rubles, or 43% more than in the first quarter of 2020. In banks' balance sheets, the share of mortgage loans in the household loan stock rose to 47%, the largest share ever, Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT) said in its weekly update.
The growth of the housing market has been supported for several years by numerous government investments and support programs. Demand for housing has been supported e.g. family benefits (so-called maternity capital) and, from 2018, a mortgage program for families with children.
97 RUSSIA Country Report June 2021 www.intellinews.com