In January 2013, the Russian banking sector has entered a phase of a standstill, inherent to the first month of a year. The key indicators of credit activity and the dynamics of funds raised during the month have slowed down. In addition, the medium-term slowing-down trends were sustained in the...

Annual growth of budget expenditures, observed in December, has resulted in the funds extension of households and corporate clients with the bank accounts. This has urged a traditional growth of bank liquidity, which, however, has only slightly exceeded the refinancing rate of the Bank of Russia...

In October, the only source of growth of banks’ fund raising were government agencies, including the Central Bank. All other sectors acted as net beneficiaries. As a result, banking sector own liquidity (liquid assets less funds of monetary authorities) reached the minimum level in both,...

In November of this year the rate of individual savings in bank deposits has significantly increased. However, neither this fact, nor the continued active government support to the banks failed to prevent the slowdown of lending to both, individuals and corporate borrowers. Also, the banking...