One in five banks in Russia now makes a loss: highest level since 2022
There has been a significant increase in the number of loss-making banks in Russia, from 34 as of 1 January 2026 to 60 by the beginning of March.
Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet, citing data from the Central Bank of Russia
Details: As a result, nearly one in five participants in the Russian banking market (19.7%) is now operating at a loss.
This is the highest level since 2022, when Russia was hit with sweeping sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, said Denis Sochnev, managing partner at Refinance.ru.
Sochnev explained that this is linked to the cumulative effect of tight monetary policy: the regulator maintained the key interest rate at a record 21% for over six months and only began gradually lowering it in June 2025, bringing it to the current 14.5%.
The Central Bank noted that most of the loss-making institutions are small banks whose combined share of banking sector assets does not exceed 1%.
However, according to Expert RA, several large organisations have also reported negative financial results over the past year.
As of 1 April 2026, losses amounted to RUB 7.2 billion (US$96 million) for Pochta Bank, RUB 3.3 billion (US$44 million) for Sinara, RUB 2.8 billion (US$37 million) for UBRIR, RUB 1.8 billion (US$24 million) for CentroCredit Bank, and RUB 1.2 billion (US$16 million) for Ingo.
Medium-sized and small banks are at risk because they are limited in terms of sales channels and lack the resources to develop new niches, said financial adviser Aleksei Rodin, founder of Rodin.Capital.
He noted that institutions that were active in corporate lending are also facing problems because the rate of default by businesses is approaching a critically high level.
In Q4 2025, the share of non-performing corporate loans exceeded 11%, compared with 5.8% a year earlier.
Background: The increase in the tax burden has had a significant adverse effect on small businesses in Russia, and half of companies are reportedly unprofitable.
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