Page 68 - RusRPTJun19

8.1 Bank sector overview
Russia’s banks are back in profit and made more money in the first quarter of this year than at any time in the last five years.
8.1.1 Earnings
In January-April 2019, Russian banks increased profits by 39.7% to RUB750bn rubles, according to a review of the banking sector on the website of the Central Bank. A year earlier, for the same period, their profit amounted to 537bn rubles.
The month-on-month increase in profits was RUB163bn, which was down on last year’s RUB184bn in the month of April and RUB214bn in the same month in 2017. However, the cumulative profits this year are still running ahead of any year in the last five when the economic crisis hurt the banking sector badly.
Profitable credit organizations dominate the banking sector, the regulator said. For four months in 2019, a profit of RUB819bn rubles. 359 banks received a loss of RUB69bn rubles.
The survey indicates that as usual Sberbank accounted for the bulk of the sectors profits , which in January-April 2019 earned RUB293.4bn rubles, or 39% of the total profits of the entire Russian banking sector. In the midst of the 2014-2016 crisis Sberbank earned the entire sector’s profits and its share has been fallen steadily since them.
Reserves for possible losses increased during the period under review by 5.2% as banks are still grappling with non-performing loans (NLPs) on their books, but share of bad loans has been falling steadily.
68 RUSSIA Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com