OREANDA-NEWS Since the beginning of the crisis, new fast-growing players have appeared on the Russian interbank lending market: they have become the "daughters" of Chinese banks, it follows from the turnover sheets of credit institutions that RBC studied. Over the past year, subsidiaries of Chinese banks have really become more active and have become important suppliers of yuan liquidity to the domestic money market, two sources in different credit institutions from the top 5 told RBC.

The Bank of Russia resumed publication of the main reporting forms of market participants in June. Prior to that, banks disclosed their turnover sheets in February 2022, before the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine and the expansion of Western sanctions.

Since then, subsidiaries of some foreign banks have multiplied the volume of interbank loans on their balance sheets:

"Bank of China", controlled by the Chinese Bank of China, from February 1, 2022 to June 1, 2023, increased the volume of loans provided to other banks by 107 billion rubles, or 7.7 times. They now account for 16.3% of the bank's assets against 8.2% before the crisis.

Chinese "China Construction Bank" ("daughter" of China Construction Bank) for the same period increased interbank loans almost six times, or 15.9 billion rubles. They now account for more than a quarter of the total assets of the credit institution (26.2%), as of February 1, 2022, the share of such loans was 14.9%.

The volume of interbank loans on the balance sheet of AiSiBiSi, the largest bank with Chinese roots in the Russian market (owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited), has increased 3.3 times since the beginning of the crisis, or by 9.7 billion rubles. However, the share of this balance sheet item in total assets remained approximately at the same level — 2%.

As of June 1, China Agricultural Bank, controlled by Agricultural Bank of China, had interbank loans worth 1.3 billion rubles on its balance sheet. In May, they have grown from zero. However, even before the crisis, the bank issued loans to other credit organizations in the range of 6-7 billion rubles, it follows from its reporting for previous periods.

So far, the share of Chinese banks in this market is still small, but it is growing at an accelerated rate. Four "daughters" of Chinese banks on their balance sheets in total hold interbank loans for only 133.9 billion rubles — 3.3% of the total volume, RBC calculations show. As of February 1, 2022, this share was 0.7%. The Central Bank and the "daughters" of Chinese banks did not respond to requests from RBC.