Sberbank says Russian cbank sets 2019 world toughness record

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (PRIME) -- The Russian central bank has set an international record of tough policy this year, the country’s biggest lender Sberbank said in a statement on Friday.

“Russia set a world record by toughness of banking regulation in 2019. From the point of view of regulative terms, 2019 was characterized by a further increase of restrictions of the central bank,” Sberbank said.

Restrictions on lending in foreign currencies, including to exporters, on all kinds of consumer lending and on mortgages with a downpayment of less than 20% were introduced in 2019.

“This leadership is not necessarily a positive fact. For instance, mortgage in Russia with an initial payment of less than 20% is weighed with a 200% risk coefficient. No country in the world has ever introduced a higher than 100% mortgage risk coefficient,” Sberbank said.

Sberbank also said that the banking crisis was not over in Russia despite a reduction of the number of revoked licenses and bailouts. “It is too early to speak about disappearance of the banking crisis: problems of small banks are still there, furthermore, it will become even harder for them to work in the new realms,” it said.

At the same time, the number of defaulted banks reached a minimum in five years with 6% of banks getting licenses revoked or bailed out in 2019 as compared with about 10% in 2014–2018, Sberbank said.

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