Banks are now attracting Russians to save in bank accounts. Banks need Russians’ cash savings to curb inflation. Traditionally, Russians’ trust in the banking system has been weak.
The share of Russian cash savings has fallen to its historical minimum, reports financial magazine RBK.
On October 1, Russian residents had 15.92 trillion rubles in cash, or 15.92 trillion rubles. Russians had significantly less foreign cash than rubles, a total of 94,700,000,000 dollars, or 94.7 billion dollars, RBK reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper bases its information on the data of the Russian Central Bank.
Vice-chairman of the state-owned VTB bank Georgi Gorshkov According to
Currently, the share of cash savings is about 15 percent of all savings, VTB’s vice president says.
VTB predicts that by the end of the year, the share of cash in Russian savings may drop by a couple of percentage points.
The Central Bank of Russia estimates that Russians will transfer 350 billion rubles of their cash savings to bank accounts this year.
Banks need Russians’ cash savings
According to RBK, in January-October, the amount of foreign cash, i.e. dollars, of Russians’ savings decreased by 2.5 percent. The development started already in 2023, when 410 million dollars disappeared from Russians’ cash savings.
VTB predicts that by the end of the year, the share of cash held by Russians will decrease by 3.2-3.5 billion dollars.
Russia has traditionally held both rubles and US dollars as cash. One reason is weak trust in the banking system.
However, banks need Russians’ cash savings now, as inflation is running high in the country and the value of the ruble has collapsed.
In October, the Central Bank of Russia set the key interest rate at a record 21 percent. The policy rate has been rising throughout the Russian invasion.
In mid-November, according to data from the Central Bank of Russia, the average highest interest rate on deposits in the ten largest Russian banks was a record 21.56 percent.
According to data published by the Central Bank of Russia in November, Russians kept a total of 52.86 trillion rubles in their bank accounts. Since the beginning of the year, the amount of funds in savings accounts and deposits has increased by 17.7 percent.