Russian banks are facing a massive increase in loan defaults and are warning of the threat of a full-blown banking crisis in the country in the next 12 months.

This was reported by Bloomberg, citing several Russian bankers and documents reflecting non-public statistics.

According to the agency’s interlocutors, Russian banks are increasingly concerned about the level of bad debt on their balance sheets, which is growing due to high interest rates.

Current and former Russian bankers in private conversations describe the situation in Russia as dangerous and warn of the risk of a debt crisis unfolding in the financial sector next year if the situation does not improve.

“Tensions in the banking system could call into question President Vladimir Putin’s ability to sustain Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, especially if Kyiv’s U.S. and European allies impose tougher sanctions on Russia’s financial sector,” Bloomberg notes.

The agency’s sources note that official data may be hiding the true scale of the debt problem. According to internal data from one Russian bank, borrowers are increasingly delaying payments. This means that while public data on late payments does not yet indicate a serious problem, in reality many more loans are not being repaid on schedule.

Russian banks estimate that bad debts are running into trillions of rubles, and bankers are already taking additional measures to manage risk. This could be early signs of a credit crunch, according to sources familiar with Russian banks’ internal assessments.

Bloomberg also points out that the burden on the Russian banking sector is increasing due to preferential lending to the Russian military-industrial complex and a slowdown in other sectors of the Russian economy.

As reported, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin last week acknowledged the possibility of the risks of stagnation and recession in the Russian economy and ordered that this be prevented.

” Some specialists and experts point to the risks of stagnation and even recession. This cannot be allowed under any circumstances ,” Putin said.

Before that, the head of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, said that the Russian economy was on the verge of recession .

“According to the numbers, we are cooling down. But all our numbers are a rear-view mirror. According to the current feelings of business, we generally seem to be on the verge of a recession,” Reshetnikov noted.

For her part, the head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, stated that the resources that allowed the Russian economy to show growth for two years in the face of a full-scale war against Ukraine and sanctions have been exhausted.

Author:  Mykhailo Orlyuk Джерело: https://censor.net/n3560173

(C)CENSOR.NET 2025