A total of 200—300 banks could stay in business in Russia in ten years, this forecast was voiced by Petr Aven, board chairman at Alfa-Bank Group, at the 7th Annual Conference “Russian Banking Sector: Growth Risks”, a Banki.ru correspondent reported.
Petr Aven thinks the reason behind such a reduction in lending institutions will be decisions by foreign lenders to leave the Russian market. Alfa-Bank CEO Alexei Marei subscribes to this viewpoint. “This stems from the problems faced by parent companies," he thinks.
Marei pointed out that the weight of foreign banks on the Russian market is going down, and that of state-run banks is growing. “In terms of lending foreign banks are losing their market shares, while government-controlled lenders are ramping up," said the banker adding they currently command 60% of the corporate lending market and 50% of the retail lending market.
Meanwhile, the banking sector has not seen any global structural changes, Marei said. However, foreign lending institutions tend to leave the country as partly they see no potential on the Russian market. At the same time, a primary trend on the Russian banking market is the consolidation of large market participants.
