Financial Performance of the Banking Sector in 2019

Sergey A. Zubov – Senior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Сandidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Return on assets of the Russian banks at 2019-end has significantly increased despite a slide in bank margin and slowdown of lending growth rates. This fact was due to both credit risk mitigation and putting in operation of a new procedure for loan loss accounting. In 2019 as a whole, bank assets’ growth rates have decreased.

Key words: Russian banking sector, banking sector profitability, bank profitability, reserve requirements, capital adequacy, bank loans, past-due debt, fee and commission income.