MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Russia's banking sector sustained losses amounting to 1.5 trillion rubles ($25 bln) in January-June 2022 amid the crisis and the sanctions for the first time in seven years, the Central Bank's First Deputy Governor Dmitry Tulin said in an interview with RBC Daily, adding that the largest lenders were hit the hardest.

Previously, the banking sector was only loss-making in some months of the 2015 crisis, when net losses amounted to 17 bln rubles in January-April, though they were offset in the following months, according to data provided by the regulator. The sector never posted a negative financial result for the half-year period since 2012 when detailed statistics started to be disclosed.

Three-quarters of operating banks were profit-making by the end of the first half of this year, whereas one-quarter of lenders were loss-making, according to Tulin. Considering the fact that 329 credit organizations operated as of July 1 in Russia, around 82 banks could show negative financials, the newspaper said.

Bank transactions related to foreign currency caused losses of 1 trillion rubles ($16.5 bln), the first deputy governor of the Bank of Russia noted. "We are talking primarily about swaps and forward contracts. When they were suspended, our banks posted the result depending on the foreign exchange rate at the moment, mainly losses," he explained. Moreover, the losses of banks involved in international transactions were also due to the negative revaluation on open-end FX positions. "The positions of some banks (open-end forex risk balance positions - TASS) moved to the unfavorable side from the viewpoint of the market environment. First, they suffered losses due to the ruble's devaluation, and later they had losses again when it strengthened," Tulin elaborated.

That said, none of the banks that posted losses for the first half of this year had its capital shifting to the negative zone. According to the first deputy chairman of the regulator, Russia's banking sector posted a record net profit of 2.4 trillion rubles ($40 bln) for 2021, whereas the banks' stock of capital totaled 7 trillion rubles ($116 bln) as of January 1.

Asked how the Central Bank estimates the sector's financial result for the first half of the year, Tulin noted that banks used the smaller part of their reserves as a result of the losses they faced. "This is not the highest price for overcoming the consequences of a strong blow delivered by the sanctions to our banking system," he added.