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Russia’s banking system stable — Central Bank official

The situation is not easy but stable, and the clean up of the banking sector, including in the current economic conditions, will continue, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexey Simanovsky said
Alexey Simanovsky Valery Sharifulin/TASS
Alexey Simanovsky
© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Russia’s banking system is stable today, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexey Simanovsky said on Thursday.

“From the standpoint of feelings, I proceed from the fact that the banking system is stable today,” the Central Bank official said at the Gaidar economic forum in Moscow.

“This does not mean the situation is extremely easy and comfortable. It is not very easy. Nevertheless, this does not mean the banking system is experiencing some shocks that may push it to an abyss,” he said, adding the regulator was not refusing from the process of cleaning up the banking sector.

The Russian Central Bank eased some requirements late last year to support domestic banks but these measures “are hardly of any strategic change in parameters that would allow a strongly unhealthy bank to feel very healthy,” he said.

The new measures implemented by the regulator in late December was a decision to allow banks to use the third-quarter exchange rate in valuing risk-weighted assets in currency operations.

Banking sector cleaning

The Russian Central Bank will continue efforts to clean up the banking sector, including in the current economic conditions, Alexey Simanovsky added.

“We are not refusing from continuation of the process of cleaning up the banking sector,” Simanovsky said.

The Russian Central Bank eased some requirements late last year to support domestic banks but these measures “are hardly of any strategic change in parameters that would allow a strongly unhealthy bank to feel very healthy,” he said.

The new measures implemented by the regulator in late December was a decision to allow banks to use the third-quarter exchange rate in valuing risk-weighted assets in currency operations.

At the same time, the Central Bank will take the current economic situation into account in the regulator’s supervision, he said.

The large-scale effort to clean up the domestic banking sector from inefficient operators started with the appointment of Elvira Nabiullina as the Central Bank chief in June 2013. The efforts aim to make the country’s banking system financially healthy and resilient to market shocks.

The regulator has paid special attention to financial institutions that are not large in size and conduct risky operations and violate capital adequacy and transparency requirements.

The Central Bank head has said a decision on license revocation is an “extreme measure” when all the other methods of “influence on a particular bank have been used up.”

The Central Bank chief said in late November that most of the work to clean up the banking sector had been done.