Sanction Fears Drain FX-Deposits from Sberbank: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- Sberbank PJSC last month was the biggest victim as Russians rushed for dollars amid fears of new sanctions against state-controlled banks. It lost $1.2 billion of foreign-exchange retail deposits, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from Bank of Russia and Moscow-based analytics company Frank RG. Total outflows in the sector reached $1.5 billion. Since the start of the year, Russia’s largest bank has lost almost 10 percent of retail deposits denominated in currencies other than the ruble. The figure for the sector as a whole is 5.9 percent. The flows should be seen as “a result of managed evolution of the balance sheet,” the bank said in an emailed response to questions. Around 29 percent of Sberbank’s $279 billion in total customer deposits is denominated in foreign currency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Baraulina in Moscow at abaraulina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Sweetman at msweetman@bloomberg.net, Geoffrey Smith, Ross Larsen

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