{
  "id": 14192981,
  "title": "Russian banks face hidden crisis as 24.5% run at a loss",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/russian-banks-face-hidden-crisis-as-24-5-run-at-a-loss",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-13T11:08:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "New Voice of Ukraine",
    "slug": "new-voice-of-ukraine",
    "url": "https://english.nv.ua/business/65-russian-banks-post-losses-in-q2-nv-business-report-50649620.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Russian banks are grappling with a hidden crisis, as 24.5% of them reported losses in 2022, according to Petro Shevchenko, a financial journalist and soldier from the AFU 8th Artillery Brigade. He reported this on October 13, 2022. Of the approximately 300 active Russian commercial lenders, 65 recorded negative financial results. Despite the Bank of Russia raising full-year banking profit projections to $52.4 billion, the true picture is of structural weakness. Over 75% of the sector's profits are concentrated among the ten largest institutions, with over 85% of profit growth generated by just four state-controlled banking giants. The apparent prosperity is largely due to aggressive reductions in loan-loss provisions. In July, provisioning allocations fell by 40%, allowing institutions to report inflated profits. Official overdue loan balances have reached 3.5 trillion rubles ($41.7 billion), while non-performing and restructured problem assets stand at 11.5 trillion rubles ($137 billion). Subsidized lending to the military-industrial complex introduces systemic risk. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian banks have extended $210 billion to $250 billion in preferential, low-rate credit to defense enterprises. Sberbank, the largest state-owned bank, generated nearly 1 trillion rubles ($11.9 billion) in 2022. However, its loan-loss provisioning expenses surged by 78.4% in the first half of the year, and impaired loans reached 5.5%. The bank's credit committee has effectively become a distressed asset committee. Dividend payouts of 0.9 trillion rubles ($10.7 billion) contributed to wiping out 0.5 trillion rubles ($6.0 billion) in banking sector equity capital in a single month. The likelihood of a systemic banking crisis is assessed as moderate by the Russian macroeconomic research center CMACP. A covert collapse could occur if bad loans exceed 10% of total loan books. Shevchenko warns that further defaults may force the Kremlin to recapitalize banks directly from the state budget, leading to hyperinflation and further monopolization of the sector by state banks supporting the war machine.",
  "summary": "The Bank of Russia raised full-year banking profit projections to $52.4 billion even as loss-making lenders reached 24.5%, financial journalist and soldier with the AFU 8th Artillery Brigade Petro Shevchenko reported on Oct. 13.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}