Banking sector: on the growth path

Over 2017, banking sector assets were up 9.0%¹. Loans to the economy rose by 6.2%, including a 3.7% growth in lending to non-financial institutions. Household lending continued to expand, whereas overdue debt on retail loans contracted markedly. By the year end, the banking sector demonstrated a sustainable growth. For details of banking sector trends, please refer to the informational and analytical publication ‘Russian Banking Sector Developments in December 2017’ on the Bank of Russia website.

The increased funding of banking transactions was fuelled by the inflow of household deposits (+10.7%) as well as corporate deposits and account balances (+4.8%).

The 2017 year-end profits of the banking sector totalled 790 billion rubles. 420 organisations finished the year with positive financial result.

¹ Relative banking sector indicators are impacted by ruble exchange movements, as well as licence revocations and terminations (excluding licence terminations following reorganisations) over the reporting period. For this reason, to provide a more accurate presentation of actual key banking sector performance indicators, the dataexcludes currency effects for credit institutions in operation as of the latest reporting date (including previously reorganised banks).