Bank of Russia’s measures to support credit institutions

To ensure resilience of credit institutions amid the restrictions imposed by Western countries, the Bank of Russia implements the following additional support measures:

1. Until 31 December 2022, the Bank of Russia allows credit institutions to:

• Make decisions not to decrease their estimates of borrowers’ financial standing for loan loss provisioning purposes if borrowers’ financial standing deteriorated after 18 February 2022 as a result of the sanctions.
• Not to decrease their estimates of debt service quality regardless the assessment of borrowers’ financial standing under restructured loans. The Bank of Russia recommends banks to restructure loans, impose no penalties or fines related to loans if the financial standing of borrowers deteriorated after 18 February 2022 as a result of the sanctions;
• Use the assessments made as of 18 February 2022 for the assets recorded on banks’ balance sheets for loan loss provisioning on loans where security assets are classified under quality category I and II.

2. To pursue the countercyclical macroprudential policy, starting from 28 February 2022, the Bank of Russia releases the accumulated macroprudential capital buffer for unsecured consumer loans and mortgage loans in rubles and foreign currency (733 billion rubles as of 1 February 2022). This measure has no time limit. The value of add-ons to risk weights for new claims will be revised later, if necessary.

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