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MOSCOW - The total amount of cash Russians have stashed outside banks has reached U.S. $75 billion, Alexei Sharonov, a member of the Russian Federal Securities Commission, told reporters citing World Bank estimates, ITAR-TASS reported Thursday.
He said the total worth of deposits placed with domestic mutual funds is “catastrophically, by tens of times, less than the above amount,” as Russians, severely bitten in the mid-1990s by financial-pyramid schemes, shy away from financial institutions.
In an effort to attract private deposits in the banking sector, the Russian government has launched a large-scale banking reform that envisages a state deposit guarantee system and the placing of limits on the activity of state-controlled Sberbank, which has accumulated about 80% of Russia's household deposits.
Analysts estimated that only roughly 20% of household liquid wealth makes it anywhere near a bank, while 80% of household wealth is held outside of the banking sector, most of it in dollars.
Russia currently has about 1,400 banks, but most of them are pigmies serving businesses and avoiding retail market.
In January-July, funds in personal accounts with Russian banks rose to 901.8 billion rubles, up 28.4% over the period and 54.5% on the year, according to the State Statistics Committee.
Savings in Sberbank personal accounts stood at 625.1 billion rubles in January-July, an increase of 24.7% from the beginning of the year.
The value of hard currency accounts rose 37.2% to 335.5 billion rubles, including the 169 billion rubles held in Sberbank, up 34.4%.
Hard currency accounts with Sberbank accounted for 50.4% of all deposits, a decrease of one percentage point in January-July.
The value of ruble accounts rose 23.7% in January-July to 566.4 billion rubles.
Ruble accounts with Russian banks accounted for 45.2% of individuals' total savings, which were estimated at 1.217 trillion rubles as of August 1.
(31.6767 rubles - U.S. $1) /Prime-Tass/
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