Page 68 - bne IntelliNews monthly country report Russia February 2024

became more attractive due to the increase in interest rates, reaching 13.64% at the end of November (compared to 12.04% at the end of October) following the 2 percentage point hike in the key rate to 15% at the end of October. Banks are particularly keen on attracting deposits with maturities up to a year, offering higher rates than longer-term deposits.
The rise in interest rates also contributed to the return of cash to banks (approximately +0.3 trillion rubles).
In November, the growth of funds in escrow accounts accelerated to 254 billion rubles (+4.6%) from 200 billion rubles (+3.8%) in October. This acceleration is linked to a reduction in the number of disclosed accounts (preliminarily down to 332 billion from 435 billion rubles) due to a slowdown in bringing properties into operation after the robust performance in October.
8.1.4 NPLs
In October, amid sustained robust lending growth, the share of non-performing loans (NPLs) continued to decline across nearly all lending segments. In the corporate portfolio, it decreased to 5.4% from 5.6%, in unsecured consumer lending, it dropped to 7.9% from 8.1%, while in the mortgage segment, it remained stable at 0.6%. This improvement is partly associated with the expansion of the credit portfolio (the denominator), and in consumer lending, it is also linked to tightened macroprudential regulations influencing lending standards.
68 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com