OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2008. Belarus' leading b2b weekly, Belorusy I Rynok (Belarusians and the Market), published an article Belarusian banks step up assets, reported the press-centre of Belgazprombank.

Belarus’ banking system, when compared to other countries’ banking, appears an ‘island’ of tranquility and well-being. Banks continue to operate in their usual manner despite some of them increased loan interest rates and suspended certain lending services.

This is due to the fact that Belarus’ banking system integration in the global banking is not very strong.

Global financial crisis has not had any impacts on Belarus’ foreign currency reserves (taking into account the National Bank funds). This illustrates stableness of our banking system.

To figure out Belarusian banks’ stock of strength, let us see their H1 2008 performance. In the first half of 2008, banks showed high asset and profit growth rates. As of 1 July, assets climbed 51% compared to the last year’s same period, profit grew 62%. Many Russian-financed banks demonstrated above-average growth rates. Two of them – Belrosbank and Moscow-Minsk have doubled their assets, and Belgazprombank has increased its equity 5.64 times.

On the whole, the structure of the Belarusian banking system remains unchanged. There has been only one move in the top ten largest banks – Belgazprombank gained advantage over nearest rivals and now ranks sixth by assets among all Belarusian banks. It is the country’s largest Russian-funded bank.

Also, Belgazprombank is a leader by profit growth rates among the top ten banks – its profit increased five times over the year. Moscow-Minsk bank is Belarus’ leading bank profitability.

The Belarusian banking system’s capital adequacy ratio in H1 2008 was quite high - reaching 14.3%, almost twice the recommendation of the Basel Committee (8%).

Larger banks tend to have lower CAR, this enhances stability of the Belarusian banking system because medium-scaled banks possess substantial stock of strength. The top ten banks can afford lower CARs as they receive support from their stakeholders – the state or large foreign banks. Of course, many foreign banks are interested in increasing their liquidity under the circumstances of the global crisis. However, none of the large banks who invested in Belarusian banking is found on the list of poor performing institutions on the verge of bankruptcy or merger.