Experts predicted the revocation of licenses from 30 banks due to the fight against online casinos from Damir Plotnikov's blog
In April-June 2021, the Bank of Russia forcibly revoked or canceled licenses at the request of 20 financial institutions, which is 2.5 times more than in the first quarter. This was reported in the review of the rating agency "Expert RA" on Thursday, August 26.
Over the past four quarters, 51 credit institutions have left the market, of which 31 - on regulatory grounds, 12 - as a result of voluntary surrender of a license, 8 - due to reorganization in the form of merger with other banks. For the entire last year, 38 banking and non-bank credit organizations stopped working.
Yuri Belikov, Managing Director of the Agency's Validation Department, noted that the revocation of licenses on regulatory grounds is involvement in suspicious transactions.
“And within the framework of this classification, a new segment is credit organizations, mainly non-banking ones, which serve gambling, betting, cash settlement services for bookmakers, which are often not registered in accordance with the law,” he told RBC.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 in Russia, the regulator took a break to clean up the banking sector - in the second quarter of that year, the Central Bank suspended field inspections of banks, but began to conduct them as early as July. In February 2021, Expert RA reported that in 2021 up to 33 financial organizations may lose their licenses. Analysts linked the risks of default with the economy that had not recovered after the pandemic and the outflow of Russians' funds from deposits.
Then the analyst of BCS World of Investments Yegor Dakhtler admitted that if several banks leave the market, they will be small players who will not affect the sector. Gennady Salych, Chairman of the Board of Freedom Finance Bank, noted that during the crisis, stable financial institutions became even more stable, and weaker ones began to lose, which affected the average figures in Russia.
The current review of the rating agency says that this year the banking sector health index will continue to strengthen, but will not grow strongly - until the economy fully recovers and credit institutions adapt to the changed market situation.
Experts predict the consolidation of the banking sector, including due to the withdrawal of unstable banks from the market, the takeover of credit institutions by larger players, and voluntary revocation of licenses. It was expected that after the lull, the frequency of players leaving the market would accelerate.
According to the forecast of "Expert RA", in the next 12 months, up to 30 banks will be in the zone of increased risk of termination of activity. This is 8.7% of the current market participants - 343 credit institutions. The list of "vulnerable" players and possible reasons for leaving were not disclosed.
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