Bank of Russia’s decisions on macroprudential policy

1. The Bank of Russia has maintained the macroprudential limits (MPLs) for mortgage loans to purchase housing under construction and existing housing in apartment buildings for 2025 Q4 and has reduced the macroprudential add-ons for mortgages to purchase housing under construction starting from 1 September 2025. 

The macroprudential add-ons applicable to mortgage lending helped decrease the percentage of high-risk mortgage loans. Over the past two years, the share of mortgages granted to borrowers with DSTI¹ of over 80% dropped from 42% in 2023 Q2 to 6% in 2025 Q2, while that of mortgages with a down payment of less than 20% — from 52% to 5%, respectively.

On 1 July 2025, MPLs were introduced to limit the issue of high-risk mortgages. To maintain the mortgage lending standards, MPLs on the mortgages to purchase housing under construction and existing housing in apartment buildings in 2025 Q4 have been set at the levels of 2025 Q3.²

The high level of macroprudential add-ons maintained since spring 2024 has helped banks accumulate a macroprudential buffer for mortgage loans of 1.8%³ of the entire portfolio, net of loan loss provisions, as of 1 July 2025. Given that the issue of high-risk mortgages is limited by MPLs and accelerated accumulation of the capital buffer appears unreasonable amid moderate growth of the loan portfolio,⁴ the Bank of Russia has decided not to apply macroprudential add-ons to mortgages to purchase housing under construction to be issued from 1 September 2025 to individuals with DSTI of 50–70% making down payments of 20–30%. This will apply to around 16% of new mortgages in the new housing segment. As for existing housing, the applicable macroprudential add-ons remain unchanged.⁵

Risk-weight add-ons for mortgage loans issued from 1 September 2025 and secured by claims under shared construction agreements

2. The Bank of Russia has introduced MPLs on IHC⁶ mortgages and home equity loans for 2025 Q4.

The Bank of Russia sets MPLs on IHC mortgages and home equity loans starting from 1 October 2025 for the first time. Loans to borrowers with high DSTI that become overdue more often account for a significant share of total disbursements in these segments. Thus, in 2025 Q2, new IHC mortgages to individuals with DSTI above 80% and 50–80% made up 30% and 28% of total new mortgages, respectively, while home equity loans to the above categories of borrowers — 46% and 28% in total new loans, respectively. To limit the share of high-risk loans, the Bank of Russia sets MPLs below the 2025 Q2 market average. Subsequently, MPLs on IHC mortgages and home equity loans will be gradually raised to the standard levels applicable to mortgages in the primary housing segment and unsecured consumer loans,⁷ respectively.

MPLs on IHC mortgages and home equity loans for 2025 Q4 for banks with a universal licence

3. The Bank of Russia has maintained the MPLs on unsecured consumer loans (microloans)⁸ for 2025 Q4 and has reduced the macroprudential add-ons for new unsecured consumer loans starting from 1 September 2025.

The MPLs that the Bank of Russia introduced in 2023 helped substantially decrease the percentage of loans to borrowers with high DSTI values. The share of unsecured consumer loans granted to individuals with DSTI above 50% dropped from 60% in 2023 Q2 to 22% in 2025 Q2. However, over the past few years, banks have been actively providing loans with high EIR⁹ values, including to individuals without a credit history, and underestimating the risks. As a result, the share of loans overdue for more than 90 days went up from 8.9% to 11.7% in 2025 H1. Without the measures to reduce the borrowers’ debt burden, its growth would have been more significant, since households with high DSTI default on their loans more often.

Banks have toughened their requirements for new borrowers and lowered loan approval rates since late 2024, which has helped stabilise the quality of new loan repayment. Cash loans overdue for more than 30 days after the first three months on book accounted for 1.6% of the total loans issued in April 2025 vs 1.7% of those issued in January 2025.

By 1 July 2025, the macroprudential buffer for unsecured consumer loans amounted to 7.6%¹⁰ of the portfolio, net of loan loss provisions (+0.5 pp in 2025 Q2). Now, when outstanding unsecured consumer loans¹¹ are declining, it would be unreasonable to continue accelerated buffer accumulation. Therefore, the Bank of Russia has decided to reduce macroprudential add-ons for outstanding credit card balances within the grace period as well as for all EIR and DSTI ranges, except for the high-risk segment with EIR of over 60% p.a., starting from 1 September 2025.

Macroprudential add-ons for unsecured consumer loans to be issued from 1 September 2025

For reference: macroprudential add-ons for unsecured consumer loans issued from 1 February 2025

4. The Bank of Russia has maintained MPLs¹² on and macroprudential add-ons for car loans for 2025 Q4. As for general-purpose consumer loans secured by vehicles, the regulator has tightened MPLs¹³ for the same period and has reduced macroprudential add-ons starting from 1 September 2025.

Lending standards in the segments of car loans and general-purpose consumer loans secured by vehicles significantly improved after macroprudential add-ons had been introduced. As compared with 2024 Q2, in 2025 Q2, the shares of car loans issued to borrowers with DSTI above 80% and DSTI of 50–80% fell from 29% to 4% and from 32% to 17%, respectively. As regards general-purpose consumer loans secured by vehicles, the relevant values dropped from 43% to 9% and from 36% to 18%, respectively. The accumulated buffer for car loans amounted to 2.7% of the portfolio, net of loan loss provisions, by 1 July 2025.

Since the regulator reduces macroprudential add-ons for unsecured consumer loans from 1 September 2025, it also lowers macroprudential add-ons for general-purpose consumer loans secured by vehicles to the levels applicable to unsecured consumer loans with EIR of 20–25% in order to ensure risk-sensitive regulation. Simultaneously, the Bank of Russia increases the MPLs on such loans. The macroprudential add-ons for and MPLs on car loans remain unchanged.

MPLs for general-purpose consumer loans (microloans) secured by vehicles for 2025 Q4

Risk-weight add-ons for general-purpose consumer loans secured by vehicles to be issued from 1 September 2025

For reference: risk-weight add-ons for general-purpose consumer loans secured by vehicles issued from 1 November 2024

5. The macroprudential add-ons for corporate loans (for growth in claims on large highly leveraged companies and foreign currency claims) have not been revised.

In 2025 H1, banks’ aggregate foreign currency claims on corporate clients (loans and bonds) went up by 6.1%. Consequently, after a long period of a decline, the percentage of foreign currency loans in the corporate portfolio increased by 0.4 pp to 11.9% as of 1 July 2025.¹⁴ However, the Bank of Russia finds no evidence that banks deliberately provide more foreign currency loans. The growth in the loans was associated with the expansion of foreign currency deposits of corporate clients, with banks reducing interest rates on yuan-denominated deposits both for companies and individuals. Therefore, there is no need to encourage banks to lower the share of foreign currency by introducing add-ons for banks’ foreign currency claims.

On 1 April 2025, the macroprudential add-on of 20% for growth in banks' claims on large highly leveraged companies came into force. Over April—May 2025, banks accumulated a macroprudential buffer of ₽8 billion for growth in claims on such companies (with claims on almost 30 legal entities being subject to the macroprudential add-on). It would be prudent to continue to gradually accumulate the macroprudential buffer for loans to large highly leveraged companies. The add-on remains unchanged.

6. The Bank of Russia has not revised the value of the national countercyclical buffer (CCyB) effective since 1 July 2025 (0.5 pp to banks' capital adequacy ratios).

Since early 2025, banks’ capital adequacy ratios increased from 12.5% to 13.4% as of 1 July 2025. The Bank of Russia assesses that banks have sufficient capital buffers to finance the economy in a sustained manner, taking into account the decisions on macroprudential instruments that have already been made and the scheduled increase in capital adequacy ratios.¹⁵ Therefore, the value of the national countercyclical buffer remains unchanged.

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31.07.2025 15.02.00