Recession is now felt less keenly by the Russian banking system, whereas the banks’ asset quality and capital structure keep improving and the liquidity is rising due to growing deposit volumes, the international rating agency says in its report entitled Russian Banks Start to Recover as Crisis Subsides.

‘The measures taken to counteract the recession and improve the market infrastructure (especially the steps targeted at giving the banks access to liquid funds) did reduce the system risks a bit, so Fitch expects that, in case of another market emergency, banks will receive support with liquid funds once again,’ says Director of Fitch’s Moscow branch financial institutions group Alexander Danilov.

Nevertheless, most Russian private banks’ ratings are still low enough, that is, within range B.