Moscow banks have accumulated 91% of the country’s banking assets. As of January 1, 2019, a total of RUR 85.5 trillion rubles ($1,4 trillion) was stored at these financial institutions, Chair of the Council for Financial, Industrial and Investment Policy Vladimir Gamza said addressing the council’s first meeting at Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Moscow banks dominate Russia’s financial sector, Vladimir Gamza noted.
“Banks in all other Russian regions have only RUR 8.6 trillion, or 9% of all national bank assets; 17 regions do not have regional banks at all, with federal financial organization’s branches operating there. Another 20 regions have only one regional bank each”, the economist said.
According to Gamza, a large number of banks today are controlled by the Government.
“Today, national banks store 70% of the country’s financial assets. Russia’s top 5 largest banks are state credit organizations that have 61% of banking assets, of which 31% is stored in Sberbank”, Gamza said.
In 2018, the total money supply in Russia stood at RUR 43.6 trillion ($675.7 billion). RUR 34.8 trillion was stored in Russian banks as non-cash money, while another RUR 8.8 trillion was in circulation as cash money outside banks, Gamza concluded.
Previously, Invest Foresight wrote about the ranking of Russia’s most reliable banks compiled by Forbes, the top 3 being the branches of foreign banks – UniCredit Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, and Rosbank. Russia’s Sberbank was ranked fourth, and VTB rounded up the top 5.