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Sberbank CEO does not rule out even big banks going bankrupt in short-term in Russia

However, this is a healthy process as short-lived banks will leave the market, German Gref says

SOCHI, October 2. /TASS/. Chief Executive Officer of Russian top lender Sberbank does not rule out cases of small, medium and even big Russian banks going bankrupt in the short-term, he said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel within International Investment Forum Sochi-2015 on Friday.

"All in all the banking sector is quite stable now and there are no problems with liquidity. There are some problems related to capital but they’re not as acute as they were half a year ago. But we’ll evidence a great number of bankruptcies of small and medium-sized banks, and maybe some big ones," he said, adding that this is a "healthy" process as short-lived banks will leave the market.

German Gref also said the situation in Russia’s banking sector won't improve till the end of 2016. "We see that so far for 8 months of the current year the banking sector in total, excluding Sberbank, have negative profits, which is a serious problem. We don’t see improvement for the first half of the next year either, though probably in the second half the situation will improve. But in general sustainability of the banking sector is not under threat," CEO added.