Russian banks lost 1.5 trillion roubles ($25bn), in the first half year of sanctions imposed by western countries that deprived the country of large parts of the global financial system.
Dmitry Tulin (first deputy chairman) of Russia’s central banking said that around two-thirds of losses were due to foreign currency operations. This was because lenders were prevented from trading dollars, euros, and other currencies.
Newspaper RBC reported that losses were concentrated in Russia’s “systemically significant” banks. These are the largest and most important of Russia’s banks. They also have stricter capital requirements.
Tulin said that the central bank did not expect another banking crisis like the one in 2014-17, when regulators had to bail out several banks and take banking licenses from hundreds of poor-capitalised banks.
This is the first time Russia has released figures regarding its banking sector since the invasion.
