OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2015. Fitch Ratings has published the latest edition of the 'Russian Banks Datawatch', a monthly publication of spreadsheets with key data from Russian banks' statutory accounts. The latest issue includes balance sheet figures as of 1 March 2015, as well as changes in February 2015. In addition, charts indicate changes in the last month for Russia's main state-related, privately-owned, foreign-owned and retail banks.

Fitch notes the following key developments in February 2015:

- Corporate loans decreased by RUB1.2trn (-3.4%) in nominal terms in February, but adjusted for 11.1% rouble appreciation against the US dollar they increased by RUB300bn (0.9%);

- Retail lending dropped by a moderate RUB172bn (-1.5%) in nominal terms, or by RUB124bn (-1.1%) adjusted for currency valuation effects. All specialised retail banks deleveraged, with loan books contracting by 1-4% in February.

- Customer funding decreased by RUB2trn (4.4%) in nominal terms, while net of rouble appreciation there was modest growth of RUB173bn (0.4%). The latter comprised a healthy RUB385bn (2.1%) inflow of retail deposits and RUB212bn (-0.8%) outflow of corporate funding (excluding funds of government entities).

- Government funding decreased by a nominal RUB336bn in February, but adjusted for rouble appreciation by a more moderate RUB177bn (-1.9%). The latter consisted of RUB866bn repayments of rouble funding (of which RUB568bn to the CBR and RUB363bn to Finance Ministry and other state entities' deposits increased by RUB65bn) and a RUB670bn increase of FX borrowing from CBR.

- CBR funding of the sector in foreign currency reached USD32bn at 1 March, an increase of USD11bn from 1 February, which accounts for the bulk of the USD16bn decrease of the CBR's FX reserves in that period. Of the increase USD5.1bn was provided to VTB and USD2.7bn to Otkritie; these banks are also the main users of CBR FX funding, with USD5.2bn and USD12.2bn outstanding, respectively, at 1 March.

- The sector reported a RUB26bn net loss in February (-4.8% annualised ROE). The largest losses of RUB21bn each were posted by VTB group and Alfa. Alfa's earnings were undermined by FX-revaluation losses, as the rouble appreciated, offsetting similarly large FX gains in January; Alfa's net income for 2M15 was around RUB9bn (ROE of 31%).

- Additionally, the sector in January-February recognised RUB44bn of negative adjustments to last year's profits (equal to 9% of 2014 income) due to subsequent events accounting. The largest negative adjustments were made by Gazprombank (RUB7.7bn, 42% of 2014 profit), Sberbank (RUB6.4bn, 2%) and Otkritie (RUB4bn, 27%).

- Among specialised retail banks, only Sovcombank and Tinkoff were profitable in February, with RUB1.6bn and RUB0.5bn of net income, respectively. Russian Standard reported a loss of RUB2.5bn, Home Credit RUB2bn, Orient Express RUB1.1bn, OTP RUB0.9bn and Svyaznoy RUB0.7bn.

- The average total capital ratio (N1, 10% required minimum) of the 100 sample banks remained almost unchanged in February. As at end-2M15, six banks in the sample (of those publishing capital ratios) had a total capital ratio below 11%: Bank of Moscow (10.1%), AK Bars Bank (10.8%), Krayinvestbank (10.3%), Svyaznoy Bank (10.6%), Express-Volga Bank (10.8%), Moscow Industrial Bank (10.4%). Additionally, Promsvyazbank had a tight Core Tier 1 ratio of 5.8% (minimum 5%), while Novikom, UBRIR and Express-Volga had Tier 1 ratios below 7% (minimum 6%). Fondservisbank, Rost, Kedr and Trust - four banks under temporary administration - had capital ratios below required minimums as of end-February.

The latest Datawatch is available at www.fitchratings.com or by clicking the link above.