Page 70 - RusRPTDec20

8.0​ Financial & capital markets 8.1​ Bank sector overview
Russia’s banking sector profit declined to RUB170bn ($2.23bn) in October,​ down from RUB200bn in September, the central bank said.
In the first ten months of 2020, Russian banks made a profit of RUB1.3 trillion, the central bank said.
The banking sector has more or less recovered from the shocks from earlier this year with the profits in October ahead of those in 2019 in October, but behind those in 2018.
On a cumulative basis the bank sector profits have caught up with those of 2019 by October.
The coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices, resulting in an economic contraction and ruble depreciation, have caused banks' asset quality to weaken​, putting moderate pressure on their credit profiles. Weaker economic activity in 2Q20 undermined banks' pre-impairment profitability, but we still view this as providing a reasonable cushion for most Russian banks to absorb potentially higher loan impairment charges without significant erosion of capital positions.
70 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ December 2020 www.intellinews.com