The Central Bank proposed to subsidize the rate on ruble loans to oil and gas companies or lend them in foreign currency

The Central Bank has formed a set of proposals to improve the conditions for long-term financing of strategic projects in the oil and gas industry, follows from the report of Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Bank of Russia, to President Vladimir Putin. The content of the document, sent on July 28, was given to Vedomosti by a source familiar with the regulator’s initiatives, the information was confirmed by an interlocutor close to the administration of the head of state.

Nabiullina, they said, recalls that there is an increased supply of foreign currency on the market, which is accumulating in the financial system. Theoretically, this currency liquidity could be directed to lending to Russian backbone enterprises of the oil and gas industry, the chairman of the Central Bank suggests. Most likely, this would reduce the risks for the banking system, since now the foreign exchange assets of Russian credit institutions are placed on correspondent accounts in foreign banks, Nabiullina notes. Nevertheless, even if liquidity is redirected to lending to oil and gas projects, the risks will remain at an elevated level, since these assets are in any case denominated in the currency of unfriendly countries, the chairman of the Central Bank admits.