Russian banks earned a record 3.3 trillion rubles in 2023 – Kommersant

At the end of 2023, the Russian banking sector received a profit of 3.3 trillion rubles. This is the result of business growth, reduction in the cost of risks and income from foreign exchange revaluation, the review says (.pdf) Central Bank (CB) on the dynamics of development of banks.

“This result should not be considered in isolation from the weak results of 2022, when the sector earned 0.2 trillion rubles. Thus, the average profit of the sector for 2022–2023 amounted to 1.7 trillion rubles, which is 27% lower than in 2021. At the same time, total income for the year was lower by 0.2 trillion rubles. due to negative revaluation of debt securities through capital, bypassing profit,” the Central Bank clarified.

The number of profitable banks in December fell to 219. This represents 68% of their total number. At the end of the year, the number of profitable banks was 292 (90%) with a 99% share of sector assets. This is significantly higher than 2022, the regulator notes.

In December 2023, the actual net profit of the sector amounted to RUB 64 billion. This is four times less than in November. The decrease in results was due to an increase in contributions to reserves (RUB 240 billion), as well as an increase in operating expenses (by 38%, to RUB 352 billion), including due to bonus payments and high advertising costs.

Sberbank received almost 1.5 trillion rubles for the entire 2023. net profit, which became a historical record. In 2022, the figure barely exceeded 300 billion rubles. Over the past year, the bank significantly increased operating costs for doing business: they increased by a quarter, to 840 billion rubles.

Details – in the material “Kommersant” “Sberbank went into expenses”.

Laura Keffer