Page 73 - RusRPTJul20

Accordingly, currency sales were carried out from these funds, and the NWF has not yet been used for these purposes.
Urals oil quotes exceeded $42 and returned to the cut-off level that separates spending and accumulating reserves in the 2020 budget​. However, purchases of currency in the NWF will resume when oil is more expensive by a few dollars. Analysts disagree what level the price of Urals has to be, but it is in the range of $44 and $50, with most analysts checking the lower end of the scale.
8.0​ Financial & capital markets 8.1​ Bank sector overview
The May headline balance sheet growth numbers for Russia’s banking sector revealed several interesting data points​. As was the case in April, large banks and the rest of the sector diverged notably in their retail segment dynamics.
The retail loan book of systemically important banks was up 0.4% m/m in May, while the rest of the 100 largest banks posted a 0.3% decline.
Retail deposits of the systemically important banks were down 0.3% m/m, while those of the other largest banks were up 0.6%.
There was also quite a notable increase in retail NPLs (up RUB25bn or 3.0% m/m).
Loans​. Retail loans were up 0.2% m/m in May (up 13% y/y and 3% YTD). Corporate loans (including to non-banking financial companies) were flat m/m in FX-adjusted terms, for FX-adjusted y/y growth of 7% and YTD growth of 3%.
Deposits​. Retail deposits were down 0.1% m/m in FX-adjusted terms, for FX-adjusted y/y growth of 7% and a YTD decline of 1%. Corporate deposits were up 0.3% m/m in FX-adjusted terms, for FX-adjusted y/y growth of 6% (and 1.5% YTD).
Asset quality​. The shares of overdue loans in the retail and corporate portfolios were at 4.7% (4.6% in April) and 6.8% (6.7% in April), respectively.
Earnings​. In May, earnings were just RUB0.5bn (RUB561bn for 5m20).
8.1.1​ Earnings
Profits in the Russian banking sector slid to a record low in May, Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina said.
Banks made just $500mn ($7 million) last month, Nabiullina told a State Duma committee, with net profit for the year so far coming in at RUB561bn ($8bn).
“Of course, most of that was obtained in the first three months, when the impact of the epidemic was still limited. Then we began to see a drop in profits to a record low in May,” business daily RBC cited Naibullina as telling
73​ RUSSIA Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com