Page 96 - RusRPTJan21

that have invested in digital infrastructure and services, and that can tap into changing consumer habits in banking, payments, and investments. Retail brokerage accounts doubled to over 8 mln in 2020, card payments for goods and services exceeded cash withdrawals for the first time, and e-commerce rose 35%. The question is who can monetize these changes through fee income, and the battle to offer subscription services beyond pure financial services will be an intriguing one to follow.
Russian banks have shown record asset growth since 2014. ​The assets of Russian banks have grown by 16.8% since the beginning of the year, follows from the data of the Central Bank. If, as of January 1, 2020, they amounted to RUB88.8 trillion, then by December 1, assets had grown to RUB103.7 trillion.
It is the most significant increase from 2014. Then the bank's assets increased by 35%, drew the attention of RBC. Half of this growth was provided by the currency revaluation after the collapse of the ruble.
This year, foreign exchange revaluation accounts for more than a quarter of the increase, or RUB4bn, since the ruble has lost 22% against the dollar since the beginning of the year, Anton Lopatin, director of the analytical group for financial organizations at Fitch , estimated for the publication . But, in his opinion, even without taking into account the depreciation of the ruble, the growth of bank assets was noticeable.
In addition to currency revaluation, lending growth also contributed to the growth of assets: the total loan portfolio of banks since the beginning of the year has grown by 13.6% to RUB60.7 trillion. This is already more of an increase in the entire 2019. Investments in securities also showed significant growth - + 30.1%. This is a record since 2008, when the Central Bank began to disclose such statistics, writes RBC.
96 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ January 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com