Although Sperbank improved its forecast for the Russian banking sector, the chairman of Sperbank still expects losses.
The new forecast is much more optimistic
said German Gref when asked about the validity of previous forecasts.
Russian banks lost a total of 1.5 trillion rubles ($24.95 billion) in the first year of 2022, said Dmitry Tulin the chairman of Russia’s central bank.
It was the first time when the regulator disclosed the earnings of the banking sector since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Tulin see about 50% chance that the full year losses will not exceed this figure.
The losses mainly affected the largest banks. These institutions reported a total loss of 1.9 trillion rubles ($31.60 billion), compared to the earnings 400 billion rubles ($6.65 billion) of profitable banks.
The chairman of the second largest Russian bank VTB also expects losses in the banking sector. According to Andrej Kostin, the sector will generate profit already next year, but roughly half of last year’s profit of 2,400 billion rubles.
Source: Reuters