Russia’s Central Bank may ban bad faith bankers from travelling abroad

MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Bank may impose a ban on trips abroad bad faith bankers, head of the regulator Elvira Nabiullina said at the meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

Currently, the Russian authorities use such a measure against debtors on utilities or fines to road police, she said.

Nabiullina said that there are "many cases when bankers go abroad, move out their assets there and these assets must be returned."

But to punish bad faith bankers it is necessary to bring them home from abroad. In response, the head of state said that it is better if the Central Bank does not let such bankers go outside Russia.

"Maybe we could think about it on the level of legislation, because now citizens who do not pay for utilities or fines to traffic police may be banned from going abroad. But when bankers with such huge debts leave the country so easily... It is clear that in two days it is impossible to get a judicial decision but it is necessary to think about this system," Nabiullina said.

"We should be careful, of course, so as not to restrict freedom of our citizens but we should also guarantee that the state, society and bank depositors are protected from any criminal activities. I will also give the relevant order to the government and law enforcement agencies and we will think about it together," Putin said.

Under the current Russian legislation, citizens who have debts for the sum of more than 10,000 rubles on bank loans, arrears on utility bills, taxes, penalties are not allowed to leave the country.

Situation in Russian banking sector stable

Nabiullina said the situation in the Russian banking sector is stable, lending is recovering.

"The situation in the banking sector, of course, reflects the state of the economy. It has its own difficulties, but the overall situation is stable, and lending is gradually recovering, rates are gradually reducing, but the dynamics are not smooth. One month the rates rising, another month they slightly decline," she said.

Nabiullina recalled that in August, excluding foreign exchange revaluation, loans to the real sector of the economy grew by 0.2%, loans to population - by 0.8%.

"If we take the dynamics from the first 8 months, the loans to enterprises slightly declined, and loans to citizens increased," she noted.

At the same time, according to Central Bank estimates, retail deposits are growing and as of end of August, positive dynamics reached 4%.

Nabiullina also said that the banking sector profits grew "quite significantly" - in 8 months of the year it amounted to 537 bln rubles ($35.06 bln).

"Profit is reaching the level before 2014. Compared to last year, profit rose 7-fold, last year there swere even losses. This revenue is the source of capital, and capital will allow increasing the scope of lending to the economy," Nabiullina concluded.

Capital outflow from Russia

Net capital outflow from Russia in the private sector in January - August 2016 decreased 5-fold to $9.9 bln year-on-year, according to preliminary estimations of the Central Bank.

Director of the Joint Department for Macroeconomic Forecasting of the Economic Development Ministry Kirill Tremasov said earlier that capital outflow from Russia by the end of 2016 will reach about $20 bln.

"I think that this year it will be in the range of $20 bln, and very low performance in the coming years continues, most likely in the range of $15-20 bln," he said.

It was reported earlier, that the net capital outflow of the Russian private sector fell 4.9 times year-on-year in January - July 2016 to $10.9 bln.

"According to the estimate of the Bank of Russia, the net capital export by the private sector remains low: it declined to $10.9 bln in January - July, while it was $53.3 bln in the similar period of the last year," the Central Bank said.