Profit of Russian banks

Main article: Banks in Russia

2023

Named the most profitable banks in Russia at the end of the year

In 2023, Sberbank became the most profitable bank in Russia, earning approximately 1.49 trillion rubles. The ratio of net profit to Sberbank's capital as of January 1, 2024 is 23.8%. Such data are given in the ranking of the largest banks in the Russian Federation for net profit, published in early February 2024.

The second position in the list compiled by the specialists of the RIA Rating project is occupied by VTB, which earned 241.5 billion rubles at the end of 2023. The ratio of net profit to capital of this financial institution was recorded at 13.6%. Closes the top three Gazprombank with indicators of 178.4 billion rubles and 14.5%. The top ten also includes:

• Raiffeisen Bank - 125.3 billion rubles, 28%;
• Alfa-Bank - 117.8 billion rubles, 13.8%;
• Promsvyazbank - 98.3 billion rubles, 18%;
• Sovcombank - 97.9 billion rubles, 29.5%;
• Trust - 86.2 billion rubles, no data;
• Otkritie FC - 59.6 billion rubles, 15.7%;
• Unicredit Bank - 58.3 billion rubles, 19.4%.

source = Sberbank

It is noted that Sberbank in 2023 earned more than the next 24 banks in the rating combined. Sberbank is also the largest Russian bank in terms of equity capital with an indicator of 6.3 trillion rubles as of January 1, 2024: this corresponds to 39% of the total capital of banks from the rating. The second and third places in this indicator are occupied by VTB and Gazprombank - 1.8 trillion rubles and 1.2 trillion rubles, respectively.

A study by RIA Rating said that capital gains in the Russian banking sector in 2023 were observed in all months, with the exception of May and January. At the same time, the decline in capital in May was the result of the payment of dividends by Sberbank, and without taking this factor into account, capital would have grown. The largest monthly increase in own funds in 2023 was characterized by March.^[1]

Record total profit - 3.3 trillion rubles

The total net profit of Russian banks in 2023 reached 3.3 trillion rubles, which is more than 16 times higher than the profit of a year ago (203 billion rubles). Such data were published by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation at the end of January 2024.

The total net profit of banks in the Russian Federation in 2023 turned out to be a record. The previous maximum was dated 2021 (2.4 trillion rubles).

source = CBR

According to the Bank's materials, in Russia 2023 market participants were able to restore the main types of income, significantly reduce the costs of reserves, and also received a one-time positive effect from the foreign currency revaluation of assets on their balance sheets against the background of weakening ruble in some months.

The result should not be considered in isolation from the weak results of 2022, the regulator warns, noting that the average profit for two years amounted to 1.7 trillion rubles, which is 27% lower than the result of the 2021 record.

According to the head of the banking regulation department and analyst of the regulator Alexander Danilov, financial organizations have accumulated "a sufficient supply of capital for a comfortable way out of easing and lending growth."

Bank profits are very high... But not all profits, unfortunately, went to capital, some were paid by dividends, there are still separate things that affect capital directly, revaluation of securities (negative). Therefore, capital adequacy, our standards have slightly decreased, but not critically, "he said at a press conference on the results of the development of the banking sector in 2023.

According to the Central Bank, the number of profitable banks in December 2023 decreased to 219. This represents 68% of their total. At the end of 2023, the number of profitable banks amounted to 292 (90%) with a 99% share in the sector's assets. This is significantly higher than 2022, the regulator notes.

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BANKING SECTOR OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION IN DECEMBER 2023

Banks' 9-month profit tops full-year 2021 profit

Russia's banking sector is one of the most striking examples of the economy successfully overcoming the effects of US sanctions and its satellites.

The total profit of the banking sector for the nine months of 2023 has already exceeded the previous annual record set before the conflict in Ukraine in 2021. According to Valery Pivnya, managing director of the Russian rating agency ACRA, after an almost complete fall in the first year of the special operation, the profit of banks in 2023 may amount to more than 3 trillion rubles. rubles (33 billion dollars).

This is three times more than the Central Bank initially expected this year, due to the credit boom, the weakening ruble and low reserve levels. On November 15, the regulator announced that it would not extend a number of measures to support banks until the end of the year, since creditors are quite stable and profitable.

Record profit of banks in the first quarter - 880 billion rubles - due to regulatory relaxations of the Central Bank

The Central Bank reports a record net profit of Russian banks in Q1 2023 at 880 billion rubles compared to a net loss of 270 billion rubles in Q1 2022 and an average profit of 540 billion rubles in Q1 2019-2021.

Profit for Q1 2023 exceeds annual profit for any year until 2018 (then the largest profit was in 2012-2013 at 790 billion for the year). Record annual profit was recorded in 2021 - 2.31 trillion rubles.

The Central Bank estimates the return on capital at 10.6%, which is 1.5 times lower than the average profitability in 2018-2021 and 1.7 times lower than the maximum profitability and in 2021.

Why did profit grow by 1.15 trillion (from a loss of 270 billion to a profit of 880 billion in 1 quarter), if compared with a loss-making 1 quarter 2022?

• The increase in profit by 660 billion rubles (from a loss of 370 billion to a profit of 290 billion) was due to improved trading operations due to the recovery of the bond market and positive currency revaluation.

• 360 billion rubles less deductions to reserves for credit losses (now 370 billion against 730 billion a year ago).

• Net commission revenues increased by 25% from 1.08 to 1.33 trillion (plus 260 billion to profit).

• Net commission revenues rose 20% from 350 billion to 420 billion (plus 70 billion to profit).

• Operating expenses were deducted from profit 20 billion - insignificant changes.

The high profit of Russian banks is largely a consequence of manipulation of the quality of the loan portfolio through large-scale restructuring, which allows you to deftly hide problem loans, thereby underestimating the necessary amount of deductions to reserves for credit write-offs (the most important factor in profit formation).

Everything is fine on paper, but forgot about ravines, wrote Spydell Finance. The share of bad loans decreased To Ukraine from 8.7% to 7.3% for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and from 5.1% to 4.7% for large companies. It would seem that great news could be celebrated, as Russian business maneuvers in a crisis, but not.

This is a direct consequence of both regulatory relaxations by the Central Bank and the actions of the banks themselves. As the Central Bank of the Russian Federation writes in the review of financial stability: "Quality improvement is technical in nature and occurs by providing new loans, and not improving the quality of previously provided ones. At the same time, problems with servicing the debt of individual borrowers, which were temporarily stopped by restructuring, are gradually manifesting themselves.

In particular, in the first quarter of 2023, delinquency in loans to raw materials and construction companies began to grow. Banks, as a rule, reserve these loans without the use of regulatory relaxations. "

However, in fact, the amount of reservation may be underestimated. From November 2022 to March 2023, the share of restructured loans amounted to a record 25% (up to three times higher than usual for a comparable period).

Moreover, every fifth restructured loan since March 2022 has been re-restructured, i.e. we can talk about the volume of up to 4 trillion rubles of bad loans with multiple restructuring. Over the year, 2% of loans are completely hopeless - over five times went to restructuring.

The Central Bank delicately and modestly bypasses the exact numbers of bad loans, but given the record volume of restructuring, and multiple, the real situation is far from stable.

Miracles do not happen with a decrease in business margins (increased taxes, increased costs due to the restructuring of logistics and sales markets, loss of the European market).

The banks' ceremonial reports, showing record profits, hide many underlying risks. In a review of financial markets, the Central Bank considered many vulnerabilities in the financial system in the context of the new sanctions reality. The quality of the loan portfolio is degraded.

In 2020, the Central Bank tested the mechanism of regulatory easing, including contributing to the graceful restructuring of loans, which significantly reduces the official and public ratio of bad loans.

The situation with loans to individuals is much better than with loans to legal entities due to low unemployment, steady growth in nominal incomes across the entire range of industries and to the greatest extent in low-income jobs where the main unsecured loans are concentrated.

Also, relatively low debt burden and low interest rates contribute to sufficiently high payment discipline, although problems are manifested here.

As of January 1, 2023, the volume of restructured loans to individuals amounts to 518 billion rubles (1.9% of the portfolio), where unsecured loans amount to 327 billion rubles (63%).

The share of non-performing loans (delay of 90 days or more) is only 8.7%, which is higher than 7.8-8% that were observed before the SVO, but in general within the framework of the norm over the past 5 years.

However, the share of bad loans, taking into account restructuring, is 12% compared to 14.5% during the COVID-19 period (this is with the cumulative total for the period of the grace period and restructuring programs).

The current level of bad loans is below 12%, since some borrowers have left the grace period, but these statistics show a mechanism for hiding non-performing loans, which affects the amount of reserve.

For mortgage loans, the official share of bad loans is only 0.6% compared to 0.75% before the SAO, 1.4% at the beginning of 2020 and 2% in mid-2018. Progress? If not, since, taking into account the restructuring, bad loans 1.9%, which is true less than in 2020 (5.5%).

Over 20% of the restructured loans were from those mobilized.

2022

Reduction in bank profits by 12 times to 0.2 trillion rubles

The profit of Russian banks in 2022 amounted to 0.2 trillion, which is almost 12 times less than 2021 (2.36 trillion), 1.6 trillion in 2020 and 1.7 trillion in 2019. The structure of financial result formation is interesting.

The profit of the Russian banking system for 2022 (200 billion) is fully due to the contribution of Sberbank (271 billion). In fact, Russian banks, excluding Sberbank, turned out to be unprofitable in 2022.

The pre-crisis indicator of banks' net profit was 500-670 billion rubles per quarter. In Q1 2022, the loss amounted to 279 billion, in Q2 - a record loss of 1239 billion, in Q3 banks set a record profit of 691 billion, and in Q4 2022 - an incredible 1.03 trillion of net profit. From record losses went to record profits.

The net interest margin rate was 4.3% in 2020-2021, in Q2 the net margin dropped sharply to 2.9%, but recovered to 4.7% at the end of the year.

The main activities of credit institutions are stable and stable, since net interest income increased by 3% (4075 - > 4194 billion rubles), and net commission income increased by 5.6% (1536 - > 1622 rubles) with fairly tight cost control, because operating expenses increased by only 7% (2559 - > 2744 billion).

The growth in net interest income is surprising, because from March to July-September banks experienced a severe percentage shock, when the funding base rose sharply in value from 3.4% in 2021 to 8.3% in mid-2022, but quickly recovered to 4.6% at the end of the year.

Customers transferred money to short-term deposits that mirrored the sharply increased rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation), but at the same time banks were limited in their ability to overlap the expensive funding base through an increase in the cost of lending.

Historically, assets are overvalued more slowly than liabilities due to greater urgency. Plus, the growth in the yield of the loan portfolio was restrained by the restructuring of corporate loans with a floating rate.

Where did the losses come from Russian banks? The formation of reserves by 2.5 trillion rubles compared to 0.5 trillion in 2021 and 1.2 trillion in covid 2020, i.e. plus 2 trillion excess expenditures on reserves compared to 2021.

Of these 2.5 trillion, corporate loans account for 759 billion reserves (dissolution of reserves by 36 billion in 2021), retail loans another 613 billion (338 billion in 2021) and other reserves by 1.1 trillion (186 billion in 2021).

Other reserves are almost entirely due to sanctions and blocking of foreign currency assets. Interbank loans to non-residents, non-received payments on Eurobonds, investments in foreign branches of Russian banks came under a potential write-off or freeze.

Usually, non-bank reserves before SVO were in the range of 120-300 billion per year, respectively, excess expenses in 2022 are estimated at about 900 billion rubles, which is the estimated direct damage from sanctions.

Losses from securities are estimated at only 107 billion (losses of 65 billion in 2021 and profit of 115 billion in 2020), since the main portfolio of banks is concentrated in OFZs and corporations, and they restored at the end of 2022.

Losses from foreign currencies, precious metals and derivatives amounted to 415 billion (profit 114 billion in 2021 and 229 billion in 2020). Due to the outflow of foreign currency funds of customers, banks were forced to hedge their position, buying currency in the domestic market for rubles, because access to external assets was blocked.

In the first half of the year, the strengthening of the ruble led to a negative currency revaluation of 1 trillion rubles, and in the second half of the year to a profit of 600 billion, hence the loss of 400 billion.

What may be the conclusions? Losses on securities, as well as on currency, are one-time due to the specifics of the conditions in the first half of 2022. Reserves for other operations of 1.1 trillion are also one-time, i.e. up to 1.5 trillion rubles of excess expenses in 2023 should not be.

However, the degradation of the quality of loans can be continued, since the low ratios of delinquencies and write-offs on loans are a fiction due to the restructuring of loans, the Spydell Finance channel noted.

High spending on loan portfolio reserves may continue in 2023.

Losses of the banking sector of the Russian Federation reached 1.5 trillion rubles in the 1st half of the year

On September 1, 2022, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation first disclosed the loss of Russian banks during the crisis. In January - June, losses in the banking sector of the Russian Federation reached 1.5 trillion rubles, the largest banks took the brunt, said the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank Dmitry Tulin.

The loss for the first half of the year amounted to 1.5 trillion rubles, mainly due to the exchange rate revaluation of 1 trillion and the impact of derivative financial instruments.

From February to June 2022, the banking system was at a loss, where in February and June there was a near-zero result, in March there were losses of about 400 billion, in April the peak of losses was almost 1 trillion, in May there were about 320 billion losses.

Since July 2022, banks are in profit. Profit for the second half of the year 1.7 trillion (exchange rate revaluation contributed positively to 0.6 trillion), where profit for December - 342 billion, which translates the total financial result for the year into a small profit of 203 billion rubles compared to 2.4 trillion in 2021.

The main contribution to losses was made by an increase in credit write-offs from 0.5 trillion in 2021 to 2.5 trillion in 2022.

In 2021, on average, over 90% of banks were profitable, in 2022 there were 77% of profitable banks, during the acute phase of the crisis from April to June there were no more than 65% of profitable banks.

Bank net interest income rose 2.9% and net commission income rose 5.7%.

The capital of banks increased from 11.6 to 12.1 trillion, where the authorized capital increased from 5 to 5.1 trillion, i.e. 92 billion rubles were capitalized, which is very small, given the scale of the banking system and circumstances, the Spydell Finance channel wrote.

The capital adequacy indicator increased from 12.3% to 12.8% mainly due to support measures from the Central Bank (dissolution of the macroprudential buffer by 0.9 trillion + accounting easing to fix the exchange rate).

The capital of banks is 8.9% of assets compared to 9.9% in 2021, and in order to return this coefficient to the pre-crisis level, capital must grow by at least 1.4 trillion (if the Bank of Russia's relaxation is not taken into account).

The reserve of ruble liquidity is sufficient. The funds of banks, including in the accounts of the Central Bank and non-marginal positions (market assets outside repo operations) amount to 18.9 trillion, which covers 26% of client funds and 58% of funds of individuals.

Another 9.3 trillion under the regulations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation can be attracted on the security of non-market assets, which brings the total coverage to 39% (the peak outflow was in 2008 at the level of 7%).

ACRA December 2022 Preliminary Estimates

Highly liquid foreign exchange assets grew from 40 billion in January 2022 to 95 billion in May 2022 and are continuously declining to 45 billion by December 2022. The reserve of foreign currency liquidity covers 59% of customers' funds.

So, since July, Russian banks have made a profit, since the fall, profits correspond to pre-crisis indicators. The capital of banks is normal and corresponds to the standards of the Central Bank (the situation is much better than in 2008-2010).

The liquidity reserve is slightly lower than in 2021, but significantly higher than 2009, higher than the banking crisis of 2015-2016 and several times covers the potential outflow of funds from the banking system.

2021: Bank profits rise almost 50% to reach record 2.4 trillion rubles

Russian bankers earned a record 2.4 trillion rubles in net profit in 2021, which is almost 50% more than a year earlier. At the end of the year, the share of profitable banks in the assets of the sector amounted to 98%.

2020

Net profit of Russian banks amounted to 1.6 trillion rubles - Central Bank of the Russian Federation

The total net profit of Russian banks in the crisis year 2020 approached a record, amounting to 1.6 trillion rubles. This figure is only 6% less than the maximum recorded in 2019. This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

Banks performed well despite the circumstances. Of course, it is distributed unevenly throughout the system, but nevertheless. The share of profitable banks is overwhelming, "Alexander Danilov, director of the Central Bank's banking supervision department, told reporters.

Net profit of Russian banks reached 1.6 trillion rubles in 2020 - Central Bank of the Russian Federation

The share of bank assets profitable at the end of 2020 amounted to 98%, which is comparable to 2019. In 2020, 75 Russian banks were unprofitable against 68 a year earlier. However, the median profit reduction was about 30%, mainly due to reserves, which more accurately reflects the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Banks were largely helped by a large-scale restructuring of loans at the peak of the pandemic, the Central Bank points out. It reached 10% of the total portfolio, market participants restructured loans by 6.8 trillion rubles. According to the Bank of Russia, 20-30% of such loans will default, which means that credit institutions will have to build up reserves in the amount of 2% of the loan portfolio (1.36 trillion rubles).

The regulator notes that at the end of 2020, the increase in household deposits in banks amounted to about 4%, and the funds of companies - 16%. Retail lending growth was about 14%. The main driver of this growth was mortgages, which set a record of 25%. The volume of mortgage lending banks increased by 10%, exceeding the result of 2019 almost twice.

According to the Central Bank report, in general, the banking sector has a significant capital reserve: 5.7 trillion rubles (10% of the loan portfolio minus reserves, excluding requirements for reverse repo transactions), in which compliance with standards is maintained, but not allowances. The regulator added that the capital reserve is distributed unevenly among banks.^[2]

The share of unprofitable Russian banks in April increased to 37%

The number of unprofitable in the Russian banks the first quarter of 2020 significantly increased - from 16% to 28% of the total number of credit institutions. In April, the share of unprofitable banks increased to 37%, the formation of profits of credit institutions slowed down significantly. This is stated Association of Russian Banks in the analytical review "Banking System in Numbers and Graphs" issued on June 16, 2020 for the first quarter of 2020.

According to analysts from the Association of Banks of Russia, the indicators of return on capital and assets in the first quarter were negative for a group of banks with a basic license (BBL), other groups of credit institutions showed positive results. The return on assets at BBL decreased from 0.6% as of January 1, 2020 to -0.1% as of April 1, 2020, the return on capital for the same period fell from 3.1% to -0.8%.

The review emphasizes that in the first quarter of 2020, the banking sector was entrusted with the state task of supporting the population and business during the coronavirus pandemic. The availability of sufficient capital and liquidity, as well as competent management decisions of the banks themselves, made it possible to avoid shocks in the banking market.

At the same time, a significant additional burden fell on the capital and loan portfolios of banks, against the background of continued inertia of lending, there was a decrease in the volume of new loans, especially in mortgages, the currency exchange of deposits, deposits and balances in the accounts of citizens and organizations increased, the flow of client funds to large banks accelerated, mainly systemically significant.

In the second quarter, the first signs of credit contraction appeared - the reduction in the volume of loans issued in April became a record since the spring of 2015, there was a general trend towards a deterioration in the quality of the loan portfolio of households and organizations of the non-financial sector, there was a decrease in balances in the accounts of non-financial organizations, rates on deposits of households and legal entities are decreasing.

The total assets of the banking sector in the first quarter of 2020 increased by 8.2% - to 104.5 trillion rubles as of April 1, 2020, while the main contribution to the positive dynamics was made by systemically important credit institutions (SZKO), which account for 70% of all assets of the sector. NWKO also accounted for the bulk of the profit received in the first quarter of 2020 in the amount of 611.7 billion rubles.

In April 2020, the net profit of the banking sector amounted to about 32 billion rubles, which is significantly lower than the results of the three previous months. According to analysts, the decrease financial in the result was largely due to a negative revaluation of foreign currency transactions for individual banks against the backdrop of a strengthening exchange rate. ruble

Taking into account the projected inflation dynamics, if the key rate is reduced to 4-4.5%, real deposit rates may go into the negative zone by the end of the year, which may lead to a deformation of the existing funding system. In the foreseeable future, the question of the sources of additional formation of reserves for possible losses on loans is of particular relevance, analysts from the Association of Banks of Russia concluded.^[3]

2019: ​​Tsentrobank: losses from bank reorganization range from 750 billion to 1.4 trillion rubles

2018: Bank profit growth to RUB 1.3 trillion 62% at Sberbank

According to preliminary estimates, the profit of Russian banks in 2018 reached 1.3 trillion rubles. compared to 0.8 trillion rubles. in 2017, according to the review of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation "Banking sector liquidity and financial markets" (January 2019). In December, the profit of the Russian banking sector exceeded 150 billion rubles. In November, the profit of the Russian banking sector amounted to almost 100 billion rubles.

"The growing profits of banks provided an increase in their capital (both directly increasing capital and contributing to an increase in the investment attractiveness of the banking sector), which, in turn, creates the conditions for a further increase in bank assets and their diversification," the Central Bank notes.

Almost 62% of this profit falls on Sberbank. The largest Russian bank is still the only one who published reports for December, from which it follows that in 2018 it earned 811 billion rubles. In 2017, Sberbank received 674 billion rubles. profit, when the entire banking sector - only 790 billion rubles. Then the share of Sberbank in the profit of the sector was 85%.

The profit of banks in 2017 was influenced by the reorganization of such large banks as Otkritie FC, Binbank and Promsvyazbank. These credit institutions added reserves and showed losses. At the end of 2018, only Trust Bank will show a comparable loss, on the basis of which a Fund of non-core and problem assets is created.

2017: Banking sector profit - RUB 790 billion 25% of banks are unprofitable

In 2017, a quarter of Russian banks were unprofitable, while their total losses (772 billion rubles) "ate" almost half of the total profit of the sector, according to Rosstat data .

The remaining 75% of credit institutions received a total profit of 1.56 trillion rubles. Excluding losses of unprofitable financial institutions, the profit of the banking sector fell slightly short of 790 billion rubles.

Alexander Saraev, Managing Director for Banking Ratings at Expert RA, in a commentary for Izvestia, explained that most often small commercial banks suffer losses that cannot withstand competition with market giants that intercept the most solvent borrowers from them. In addition, borrowers from among small and medium-sized companies are actively moving to state-owned banks. In 2017, 68% of the loans provided to them came from financial institutions of the top thirty, which is the maximum in recent history.

Lilia Belyaeva, deputy head of the financial markets control department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, confirms that it has become more difficult for small banks to compete with credit institutions with an extensive structure and state participation. Analysts "Expert RA" indicate that 76% of legal entities and 74% of citizens keep savings in state-controlled banks, which is 9% and 10% more than a year ago. Business received 73% of loans in such banks, and individuals - 72%.

The head of the financial ratings department of the NRA Karina Artemyeva adds that the transition of depositors and borrowers to state banks was facilitated by scandals around a number of large private banks. In 2017, Promsvyazbank, Otkritie and Binbank underwent reorganization with the establishment of state control.

Notes