Banks raised the selling rates of cash currency

Following a noticeable increase in the official exchange rate of the dollar and the euro, banks raised the cost of selling cash currency. For many, the euro exchange rate exceeded 100 rubles, and the dollar – 90 rubles. At the same time, the bankers interviewed by Kommersant did not observe an increased demand for an unfriendly currency. Experts believe that banks proactively set prohibitive rates in order not to face a shortage of cash currency, given the problems with replenishing its reserves.

At the auctions of the Moscow Exchange on July 5, the dollar exchange rate stopped at 91 rubles / $, having added 1.8 rubles per day. During the auction, the rate reached 91.2 rubles. rub./$, updating the maximum at the close since March 28 last year. The euro exchange rate rose to 99.27 rubles / €, also updating a multi-month high, and closed at 99 rubles / €, which is 1.75 rubles. above the close of trading on Tuesday. The yuan exchange rate consolidated above 12.5 rubles/CNY.

For six trading days of almost continuous growth, “toxic” currencies on the stock exchange added almost 6 rubles in price.

Against this background, banks actively increased the selling rates of cash dollars and euros. In the mobile application of Sberbank, the euro was sold at 99.5 rubles, the dollar – at 94.4 rubles, in VTB – 100.55 rubles. and 92.85 rubles, and in the bank “Tinkoff” – 109.1 rubles. and 102 rubles. A week and a half ago, on the day of the main events of the Wagner PMC rebellion, sales rates soared more significantly – on Saturday, June 24, in the morning, dollar sales rates rose to 94.5-97.5 rubles / $, and the European currency was sold at 104-106.4 rubles / €, exceeding exchange rates by 10-12 rubles. (cm. “Kommersant” dated June 24).

In large banks – Sberbank, VTB, Rosbank, Russian Standard – they noted that they did not observe an increased demand for dollars and euros. “Only the Chinese yuan shows a systematic growth in turnover,” VTB noted.

Maxim Timoshenko, Director of Financial Market Operations at Russian Standard Bank, noted that “on the one hand, the population has already been taught that there may be a correction behind growth, on the other hand, this appreciation is caused by understandable factors, namely the state of the country’s trade balance rather than one-time, crisis factors. At the same time, Anton Prokudin, the chief macroeconomist of Ingosstrakh Investments Management Company, admits that in a month “it will most likely be possible to buy more profitable.”

The Central Bank officially explains the current depreciation of the ruble with a change in the trade balance (see. “Kommersant” dated July 5). At the same time, Yuri Belikov, Managing Director for Validation at Expert RA, believes that “the recent high-profile events that threatened overall stability and the reaction to them, which could be expressed in chaotic purchases of foreign currency for rubles, played their role.” According to him, even if there were no large forex participants standing out from the general mass of transactions, many small transactions in a limited period of time are quite capable of “rocking the boat”. As for the increase in the spread of purchase and sale by credit institutions, adds Yuri Belikov, these are largely prohibitive measures, banks do not want to face a shortage of foreign currency in cash in the absence of its supply.

Maxim Buylov, Polina Trifonova