The Central Bank of the Russian Federation spent 758.3 billion Russian rubles to bail out Otkritie Financial Corp. Bank, B&N Bank and PAO Promsvyazbank, and offered a further 1.86 trillion rubles in deposits in 2017, according to figures in the process of being finalized that were cited by the regulator's chief, Elvira Nabiullina in a June 5 Reuters report.
In addition, the central bank is considering bolstering a 2.1 trillion ruble fund being set up to take over noncore and bad assets from bailed-out lenders.
Nabiullina also pointed to legislative measures coming into force in July that will help the regulator retrieve assets from the former owners of financially troubled banks.
To date, the former owner of B&N Bank is the only individual among these failed banks to have helped cover the losses, Nabiullina said in an interview with Vedomosti published June 5. The B&N Bank owner transferred assets worth around 100 billion rubles, according to the regulator.
Nabiullina also noted that the central bank wants local banks to set aside higher provisions on corporate loans financing mergers and acquisitions. The regulator plans to introduce these requirements gradually.
Having recently raised risk ratios on foreign currency loans, the regulator is in early stages of planning to introduce further measures aiming at reducing banks' foreign-currency exposures.
Nabiullina also told Reuters that Russian banks' overall return on capital is at a satisfactory 8.3% and she expects local banks to earn 1.5 trillion rubles in 2018, with interest income being the main source of profits.
As of June 5, US$1 was equivalent to 62.26 Russian rubles.
