The share of foreign currency deposits in banks in friendly currencies reached 12.7%

In April, the share of foreign currency deposits and bank accounts in friendly currencies reached 12.7%. This is mainly the Chinese yuan, the rest of the “soft” currencies are still experimental. According to forecasts of market participants, by the end of next year, the share of the yuan in foreign currency savings of citizens will reach 45%. However, they will not be able to fully replace the dollar and euro yet.

According to data published on Tuesday by the Central Bank, the share of non-toxic currencies in the structure of foreign currency savings of the population in banks (accounts and deposits) amounted to 12.7% in April. In April, the indicator increased by 1.6 percentage points. According to the Central Bank, as of April 1, the volume of citizens’ funds in foreign currency accounts and deposits in banks amounted to 4 trillion rubles. Thus, at that time, non-toxic currencies accounted for 44.4 billion rubles.

This year, the portfolio of yuan savings of individuals in Russian banks will double and reach 88 billion yuan, VTB predicts. As a result, the Chinese currency will take a quarter of the foreign currency savings of clients, and by the end of 2024 its share will exceed 45%, the bank is sure. “The volume of Chinese currency on the accounts of retail customers is steadily increasing, the yuan is playing an increasingly important role in the development of the new Russian economy,” notes Anatoly Pechatnikov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of VTB. 9.4 billion yuan. It is the Chinese currency that today is the main alternative, in fact, to the dollar and the euro that have “left” the country.” Other “soft” currencies are only looking for their consumer in Russia, acting as “niche proposals”, he concluded. “We expect about 40% of foreign exchange savings to be held in yuan by the end of 2024. According to the results of 2025, it is about 65%,” says Anna Volkova, Director of Retail Business Development at Sinara Bank. “The popularity of dollars and euros is declining due to a decrease in the number of available investment instruments in this currency and high country risks.” According to Natalya Voloshina, head of the funded products development department at Alfa-Bank, the yuan is a new currency for the Russian depositor, so the attitude towards it is very careful so far.

However, despite the de-dollarization, not all individuals who have foreign currency deposits want to close them and convert them into rubles at the Central Bank rate, perhaps waiting for a change in the situation in the future or expecting a weakening of the ruble in order to capitalize on the exchange rate difference, the bank ratings analyst explains. NRA Natalia Bogomolova. “De-dollarization, of course, is taking place, but on a microscopic scale, including because non-cash yuan is difficult to spend, few people choose China as a vacation destination, and it is risky to count on the growth of the yuan against the ruble in the current situation in the global economy,” Ilya Zharsky, managing partner of the expert group Veta, explains. “People were simply forced to abandon the dollar in favor of the yuan, because cash dollars still cannot be withdrawn from a bank account.” Today, citizens’ interest in yuan deposits is supported by high rates (up to 3.6%), adds NKR Managing Director Mikhail Doronkin. According to Vyacheslav Putilovsky, Junior Director for Banking Ratings at Expert RA, the yuan is not yet very popular as a savings instrument, partly because it is not a freely convertible currency. “The prospects for the flow of funds into the yuan will largely depend on the success of the transfer of foreign trade to settlements in friendly currencies, however, with a possible increase in the share of deposits in yuan, this process will largely occur due to an increase in their volumes, and not the abandonment of the dollar and the euro ”, concludes Valery Piven, Director of the ACRA Group of Financial Institutions Ratings.

Ksenia Dementieva