RBC: The Russian banking sector faced a liquidity shortage due to the “military operation” of the Russian Federation – Rosbalt

RBC: The Russian banking sector faced a liquidity shortage due to the “military operation” of the Russian Federation – Rosbalt

THIS MESSAGE (MATERIAL) IS CREATED AND (OR) DISTRIBUTED BY A FOREIGN MASS MEDIA PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT AND (OR) A RUSSIAN LEGAL ENTITY PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT.

After the start of the military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the Russian banking sector entered a state of structural liquidity shortage – a situation where the debt of credit institutions to the Bank of Russia is greater than the amount of funds placed by them on correspondent accounts and deposits with the Central Bank.

According to the regulator, as of March 1 this year, the figure reached 5.39 trillion rubles. – this is a record since at least 2017, RBC reports.

Banks – so that they had something to pay off with customers – after February 24, they began to sharply increase borrowing to the Central Bank.

Alexander Proklov, senior managing director of the NKR rating agency, believes that the increased structural deficit is a consequence of the massive withdrawal of funds from current accounts and deposits by bank depositors.

Recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

In particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and access their financial systems.

You can follow the chronicle of events around Ukraine on March 2 here.

Source: Rosbalt

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