OREANDA-NEWS. 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 September 2014, as well as changes in August 2014. 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 August 2014:
- Corporate loans increased by RUB400bn or 1.5% (RUB122bn or 0.4% if adjusted for 4% RUB devaluation against USD). However, reported corporate loan growth is somewhat understated due to VTB showing a RUB124bn net decrease of corporate loans, which is likely to be a result of a transfer of a 96% stake in Bank of Moscow to the balance sheet of the parent bank (a RUB278bn increase of investments in subsidiary banks in August) from its subsidiaries. Loans previously extended to some of the subsidiaries to fund the initial share purchase were probably unwound.
- Retail lending grew by a moderate RUB142bn or 1.3% in August (10.3% in 8M14). Over 75% of the increase was accounted for by state banks. Among specialised retail banks Russian Standard, Sovcombank, OTP and Tinkoff grew in line with the market, while others saw moderate deleveraging
- Customer funding (excluding accounts of government entities) increased by RUB245bn (comprising RUB89bn from corporates and RUB156bn retail). However, net of the foreign currency revaluation effect there was net outflow of RUB196bn, as RUB213bn outflow (adjusted) of corporate funding exceeded RUB17bn inflow of retail deposits
- Government funding dropped by RUB43bn in August, as a result of a RUB139bn outflow of Central Bank funding and a RUB96bn inflow of other state-related funds (i.e. Ministry of Finance, regional and federal budgets)
- As both customer and state funding dropped in real terms in August, the banks financed lending out of previously accumulated liquidity. As a result, the system's highly liquid assets (cash and equivalents, unpledged government bonds and short-term interbank placements) decreased by RUB742bn
- Profitability was moderate with the sector reporting RUB76bn net income (annualised ROE of 13%). The bulk of this was earned by Sberbank (RUB31bn) and VTB group (RUB24bn), while 35 banks of the sample were loss-making. Retail banks' profitability was poor - only Orient Express and Renaissance Credit had significant profit of RUB0.9bn and RUB0.3bn respectively; Russian Standard and Tinkoff were marginally above break-even, while Home Credit, Sovcombank, OTP and Svyaznoy reported losses
- Capitalisation remains moderate. As of 1 September, 12 banks from the sample had a total capital ratio (N1, 10% required minimum) below 11%, including four below 10.5%. These were Rencredit (10.3%, a monthly increase of 0.1%), Moscow Industrial Bank (10.1%), Fondservis (10.2%) and Bank Trust (10.3%).