In 2022, the loss of the Bank of Russia amounted to 721.7 billion rubles (US$ 9.3 billion), reads the annual report of the regulator. Compared to 2021, the negative financial result increased by 27.4 times - then the indicator was at the level of minus 26.3 billion rubles (US$ 341 million).
The Bank of Russia has been unprofitable for six years already: in 2017, after significant spending on the financial recovery of three banking groups, the Central Bank recorded a net loss of 435.3 billion rubles (US$ 5.6 billion). It was a historical record.
The regulator cites two factors that led to a negative financial result in 2022:
a) loss from the sale of shares of Otkritie Bank and from the temporary transfer of MinBank shares to the balance sheet of the Deposit Insurance Agency prior to its transaction with Promsvyazbank. Net expenses of the Central Bank on these operations amounted to 382.2 billion rubles (US$ 5 billion). In December 2022, the regulator announced that it had concluded an agreement on the sale of Otkritie to the VTB group for 340 billion rubles (US$ 4.4 billion). Two thirds of this amount was to be paid in cash and one third in federal bonds;
b) loss of 315 billion rubles (US$ 4.1 billion) "from unrealized revaluation" of debt obligations of foreign issuers.
The total assets of the Central Bank at the end of 2022 decreased by 9.9%, to 47.2 trillion rubles (US$ 613 billion). The main decrease was in foreign currency assets and precious metals, the regulator attributed this to the strengthening of the ruble against major currencies. The total liabilities of the Bank of Russia for the reporting period fell by 4.7% to 34.5 trillion rubles (US$ 578 billion), RBC reported.
