OREANDA-NEWS. In general, the Russian banking sector has adjusted to the complicated macroeconomic environment and retained its stability necessary to satisfy the corporate sector and household demand for banking services, the Banking Supervision Report 2015 states.

According to the report, year-end net profit of credit institutions totalled 192 billion rubles (against 589 billion rubles in 2014). Credit institutions’ capital grew by 13.6 per cent and reached 9 trillion rubles. The relation of credit institutions’ capital to GDP at 2015 year-end made 11.1 per cent which is by 1 per cent higher than the similar ratio one year earlier. At the same time, 25 banks required additional capitalisation through the deposit insurance agency in 2015 with 802 billion rubles provided to them.

GDP and outside funding shrinkage, a high level of inflation made Russian credit institutions intensify their use of internal sources. In particular, the document says, household deposits were gaining momentum.  Their volume nominally grew by 25.2 per cent (against 9.4 per cent in 2014) to 23.2 trillion rubles. The deposit growth made 16.8 per cent with FX factor not taken into consideration. The deposits maturing in 6 to 12 months grew by 130.5 per cent thus being the major driver of such increase. At the beginning of the year deposits accounted for 28.0 per cent of liabilities in the banking sector (against 23.9 per cent as of the start of 2015).

The growth of funds attracted from organisations turned out to be more moderate. In 2015, the total volume of deposits and funds on bank accounts of non-financial and financial institutions (with credit institutions excepted) grew by 15.6 per cent (against 38.6 per cent in 2014) to 27.1 trillion rubles. At the same time, the report noted the decrease in rates of lending growth with overall volume of credits to the economy (to non-financial institutions and households) grew by 7.6 per cent only in 2015 (against 25.9 per cent in 2014) to reach 44.0 trillion rubles.

Household loans suffered a 5.7 per cent setback in 2015. As of 1 January 2016, the portfolio of such loans made 10.7 trillion rubles. The decrease was mainly due to unsecured consumer lending. At the same time, the share of mortgage lending grew by 12.9 per cent to 4 trillion rubles. According to 2015 year-end data, only 91 mortgage loans were retained in foreign currency. The relative share of all types of household loans in rubles remained the same and made 97.3 per cent with the interest rate on such loans maturing in over one year decreased from 19.5 per cent in January to 17.5 per cent in December 2015.

The report data states that the trend to reduce the number of certified credit institutions is still alive in 2015 with their number decreased by 101 entities to 733. One needs to mention that the number of regional banks registered outside the Moscow Region reduced from 375 to 341. The Central Federal District (Moscow) and the North-Western Federal District (Saint Petersburg) enjoy the maximum bank concentration. The Urals experienced growth in retail banking services. The other regions with the exception of the Siberian Federal District, suffered a relative setback in this aspect in 2015. The Northern Caucasus still has the minimal number of banking institutions: a low level of availability of banking services is seen in the Chechen Republic, as well as in Dagestan and in the Republic of Ingushetia.

At the same time, the share of top 200 credit institutions as regards the value of assets in total assets of the banking sector in 2015 increased to 97.2 per cent as of the end of the year. The share of top 5 banks also grew in 2015 from 53.6 to 54.1 per cent.