Russian banking : The state makes a comeback?

The purpose of this paper is to carefully assess the size of public sector within the Russian banking industry. We identify and classify at least 78 state-influenced banks. For the state-owned banks, we distinguish between those that are majority-owned by federal executive authorities or Central Bank of Russia, by sub-federal (regional and municipal) authorities, by state-owned enterprises and banks, and by state corporations.. We estimate their combined market share to have reached 56% of total assets by July 1, 2009. Banks indirectly owned by public capital are the fastest-growing group. Concentration is increasing within the public sector of the industry, with the top five state-controlled banking groups in possession of over 49% of assets. We observe a crowding out and ero-sion of domestic private capital, whose market share is shrinking from year to year. Several of the largest state-owned banks now constitute a de facto intermediate tier at the core of the banking sys-tem. We argue that the direction of ownership change in Russian banking is different from that in CEE countries. Key words: Russian banks; transition; banking; state; government; public sector; state-owned banks; state-controlled banks; state-influenced banks JEL codes: G21, G28, P31, P43.