Sberbank: Banks may lose 10 bln rbl on new currency reserves ratio

MOSCOW, Jul 24 (PRIME) -- The Russian banking system may lose almost 10 billion rubles of income to provide for additional reserves against foreign currency liabilities under a recent central bank ruling, Mikhail Matovnikov, chief analyst at top bank Sberbank, told PRIME late on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, the central bank said it would raise the regulatory ratios of reserves against all foreign currency deposits by 1 percentage point starting from August 1 in order to de-stimulate the increase of share of foreign currency liabilities in the banking system.

“For the whole banking system, the additional payments to the obligatory reserve fund will amount to about 156 billion rubles. This central bank move may mop up excessive ruble liquidity invested in income-generating instruments, like the central bank’s deposits. As a result, the banking system’s income will fall by almost 10 billion rubles short per year given the current interest rates,” Matovnikov said.

The increase of the ratio will also add about 7 basis points to the cost of foreign currency deposits for banks, raise the cost of loans, and reduce attractiveness of foreign currency borrowing.

The Russian banking system is already going through active de-dollarization. As compared with the beginning of 2016, provision of foreign currency loans has fallen by 18%, and foreign currency deposits have shrunk by 12%, he said.

(63.1957 rubles – U.S. $1)

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