Page 80 - RusRPTSept21

8.0 Financial & capital markets 8.1 Bank sector overview
Russian banking sector profits remained high in July as the sector bounces back strongly from last year’s crisis. The profits earned by Russian banks in July continued to rise and are now at their highest level since at least 2015, according to the latest Central Bank of Russia (CBR) bulletin.
The sector's net profit in July amounted to RUB229bn ($3.1bn) and the return on capital was a healthy was 25% in annual terms. July profits were 13% higher than the result in June (RUB204bn), the CBR said.
The banking sector has earned a total of RUB1.4 trillion ($19.1bn) over the first seven months of this year, which is well ahead of the RUB787bn it earned in the same period in 2020, and also more than the RUB1 trillion it earned in 2019, the first year of strong growth following the 2014 crisis. Indeed, the sector has already earned almost twice as much in seven months as it earned for the full year in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The current earnings are also as much as the sector earned in all of 2018 as well.
In July, retail lending did not grow as actively as in previous months, due to a decrease in issuance of preferential mortgages, as well as a slight slowdown in consumer lending. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has been concerned about a consumer credit bubble and has been actively trying to cool consumer lending using the prudential rules.
But corporate lending has accelerated significantly due to financing of large companies from various industries. There was a significant inflow of government funds in liabilities, while companies' funds were reduced, which is largely due to tax payments.
Funds of the population grew moderately, while time deposits practically stabilized.
80 RUSSIA Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com