Russian companies are providing the nation’s banks with much-needed support amid a time of turmoil for the industry, according to news from Reuters last week.
Central bank data analyzed by Reuters suggests corporate deposits at Russia’s top 10 banks held strong as of Oct. 1 compared to a month earlier, despite the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) taking control of two major financial institutions (FIs), B&N Bank and Otkritie Bank. The two bank bailouts occurred within weeks of each other between last August and September.
The Central Bank of Russia’s bailout of Otkritie Bank, worth $7 billion, was one of the biggest bailouts in the nation’s history.
But data obtained by Reuters via Russian financial analysis tool kuap.ru suggests corporates in the nation haven’t been put off or spooked by the cash bailouts and are keeping their money with the nation’s biggest players. Otkritie saw the largest outflow of corporate deposits and current accounts, the publication said, with corporate customer funds having dropped by more than 13 percent between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1. The decline was worth $1.05 billion.
The largest outflow of corporate cash in value was at state-owned Sberbank, though the funds represented just 1.8 percent, reports added. Sberbank told Reuters that those outflows were insignificant for the Russian bank.
Meanwhile, VTB and Gazprombank each saw inflows of corporate cash.
“We do not see significant clients’ outflows from systematically important banks,” said Irina Nosova, deputy director for ACRA, a banking ratings group, in a statement sent to the publication.