Bank of Russia: Stress Tests Show Financial Sector More Reliable

The Bank of Russia said in its annual report released on Tuesday that Stress tests completed in 2018 showed growing reliability of the Russian financial sector, according to Moscow-based Echo Radio.

“Reliability of the financial sector improved in 2018. Stress tests reveal that readiness of the financial market to counter threats has grown,” the regulator noted.

The banking sector generally remained stable during the reporting year, the central bank added. Adequacy of the total capital of the banking sector was above the regulatory minimum value even in the worst-case scenario (the average oil price drop to $25 per barrel), the regulator noted.

“The Bank of Russia opened a project on development of an integrated supervising stress testing system for purposes of further improvement of stress testing approaches and the increase of the proactive component of the banking supervision process in 2018,” the report said. Implementation of the project is planned for 2019-2020.

Bank of Russia’s annual report was submitted to the State Duma and will be considered at a plenary session of the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. The regulator’s annual report contains an analysis of the external and internal conditions for the functioning of the Bank of Russia, its annual financial statements, the audit report and the opinion of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation.