UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 15, 2018. Yekaterinburg banks report their customers are growing increasingly more interested in placing their savings onto dollar/euro deposits due to the recent weakening of the Russian ruble against the U.S. dollar and the Euro.

‘The demand for foreign currency deposits is on the rise. The number of newly opened deposits went up by 7% in August compared with July. Our customers are trying to make money out of both the interest payments and the exchange rate fluctuations,’ the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s press service reports.

Now the Russian national currency has been weakening against the dollar and the euro since August 7, 2018. The RUR/USD exchange rate exceeded 68/1 on August 13, 2018 and the RUR/EUR rate exceeded 78/1. The fluctuations have been brought about by the upcoming series of U.S. sanctions against Russia’s financial and industrial sectors. The exchange rate rose to RUR 66.8 per USD 1 on August 14.