Correspondent accounts continue growing

At the beginning of business today balances at correspondent accounts of Russian commercial banks considerably advanced again. Throughout the country the growth was more than 12bn rubles ($390m), while in the Moscow region they added 8.5bn rubles ($274m). The balance has increased for the fourth working day in a row. In this period balances at correspondent accounts of Russian commercial banks grew by 50bn rubles ($1.62bn), and they surged by almost 44bn rubles ($1.42bn) in the Moscow region. As a result, the balance of correspondent accounts at Russian commercial banks amounted to 174.1 billion rubles (about $5.67bn) and it reached 129.8 billion rubles (about $4.23bn) at the banks in the Moscow region this morning.

Such large balances have not been registered over the past several years. Even after the four-day break due to the New Year holidays the balance was considerably smaller at the beginning of this year. Dealers link this high volume to massive selling of US currency by bank clients this week. As a result dollar sellers have accumulated huge ruble resources.