UrBC, Moscow, September 10, 2018. Russian banks do have some liquid assets at their disposal, but they won’t be able to use these funds to issue loans to businesses. Only very few companies can be seen as dependable borrowers, it is believed. Besides, the Central Bank is taking steps to prevent banks from issuing too many loans to private borrowers, BBC refers to the Russian Banks XXI International Banking Forum’s attendees as stating.

‘There are RUR 3.3 trillion in surplus liquidity money in the banking sector at the moment,’ President of the Russian Banks Association Georgiy Luntovsky is quoted as saying.

According to Lutkovsky, the lack of trusted loan applicants and the strict regulatory requirements lead to Russian banks depositing their funds with the Central Bank so as to make some ‘acceptable, risk-free income’.

‘The Central Bank now has thrice as much money in its deposits and corresponding accounts as five years ago. A lot of the funds gets brought in by the small and medium-sized banks which find it difficult to compete for the loan applicants with the market’s giants,’ Lutkovsky says.