Bank deposits are up in November
Deposits continued to grow in November 2019, driven, among other factors, by a temporary rise in interest rates (according to the results of monitoring of major market players) in the third ten days of the month due to seasonal bank offerings. These are the findings published in the information and analytical material ‘On the Development of the Russian Banking Sector in January—November 2019’.
Funds raised from individuals increased by 0.7%, and the growth rate of corporate deposits and funds was the highest this year (+2.2%), which may be associated with large tax reimbursements to certain companies and earnings from the sale of securities. These funds were mostly denominated in rubles. As a result, the share of foreign currency in retail and corporate deposits and funds shrank to 20.6% and 33.1% respectively.
Retail lending continued to decline: its growth rate dropped to 1.3% in November as compared to 1.4% in October (adjusted for mortgage loan securitisation transactions). The portfolio of ruble-denominated corporate loans shrank slightly (-0.1%), although demand may be expected to go up somewhat amid lowering interest rates.
In November, banks’ pre-tax profit totalled about 175 billion rubles, which is 44 billion rubles more than the monthly average recorded since the beginning of the year. As of the end of the first 11 months of 2019, profit was just below 1.9 trillion rubles (1.6 trillion rubles, excluding technical profit related to the implementation of IFRS 9).