OREANDA-NEWS The reserve of foreign currency liquidity of Russian credit institutions decreased by a significant 8.7% in December - to $44.7billion against $48.9 billion in November, mainly due to a decrease in account balances in non-resident banks amid an increase in foreign currency lending and a reduction in foreign currency client funds.

This is stated in the review of the Bank of Russia on the development of the banking sector.

The level of foreign currency liquidity coverage of customer funds in December decreased to 49% from 52%, and foreign currency liabilities - to 25% from 27%.

The volume of ruble liquidity in December increased by 11.4% (by 1.9 trillion rubles) to 18.7 trillion rubles. Balances in the Bank of Russia increased by 1.4 trillion rubles over the month due to a significant influx of client funds. Unsecured collateral increased by 0.3 trillion rubles as a result of the release of collateral after the closure of repo transactions with the Federal Treasury.

The level of ruble liquidity coverage of customer funds in December increased to 20.7% from 19.9% in November, and funds of individuals - to 45% from 44%.

Against the background of the growth of liquid assets, the share of banks (by assets) with customer funds coverage below 20% decreased slightly to 66% from 70%. The volume of liquid assets required to increase coverage to 20% of customer funds decreased to 4.2 trillion rubles from 4.3 trillion rubles.