Potentially problematic debts in banks are estimated at 700 billion rubles

According to RBC, referring to the review of the rating agency "Expert RA", the volume of potentially problematic loans in the country's banks, not reflected in the RAS reporting, as of January 1 of this year amounted to 700 billion rubles. At the end of 2022, the regulatory capital of credit institutions amounted to 13.3 trillion rubles. If the sanctions are expanded, the amount will increase, experts say.

We are talking about unaccounted for really problematic debt, which is formed at the expense of borrowers who are in a difficult financial situation. Moreover, the estimate is lower than the data of the Bank of Russia on the restructuring of loans. According to the results of last year, Russian banks eased the conditions on corporate loans by 9.8 trillion rubles, on loans to small businesses — by 1.2 trillion rubles, on loans to individuals — by 455.5 billion rubles.

The high share of corporate loan restructuring was explained by the fact that at the peak of the crisis, many large borrowers took advantage of government benefits, changing loan rates from floating to fixed. A significant part of the restructured debts does not go into the category of problematic.

It is noted that more than 80% of the 700 billion are corporate loans. The easing of the regulator on reserving loans for banks issued before the crisis is still in effect. For loans to legal entities with a delay of up to 90 days, banks must form coverage of possible losses by June 30, 2023, for loans to individuals and small businesses — by the end of the year.

At the end of last summer, it turned out that banks have been rejecting loan restructuring applications for more than 50% of customers since March. During this period, 1.23 million people applied to 44 financial institutions, including the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, for loan restructuring. 531 thousand applications were granted, totaling 267 million rubles, but most of the petitions (45-80%) were rejected. At the same time, in the middle of the summer of 2022, the number of negative responses on loan restructuring and credit holidays increased by 10-15% compared to April.

By the beginning of 2023, the Central Bank stated a record debt burden of citizens - it increased to a historical maximum of 10.6%. In March, the situation began to change, and Russians began to postpone the decision on obtaining a loan more often.