Banks of Russia reduce rates on deposits in ruble

     The top three Russian banks have reduced rates on deposits in rubles, Forbes reports.

     Sberbank reduced the yield of leading deposits by 0.1-0.25 points. The returns on them is now 2.7-4.5%, depending on the amount and term of deposits. The changes didn’t affect promo deposits: until January 15, it is possible to open a New Year’s bonus account with a profit of 4.85-5.25%, until January 31 the offer “Profitable start” with a yield of 5-5.85% also remains in force.

      Alfa-Bank changed deposit rates by 0.2-0.5 points and closed the “Higher” deposit, where the rate of return was 5.94%. At the moment, the maximum possible deposit rate for those who don’t use other services of a credit institution is 5.1%.

     Russian Agricultural Bank brought down rates for 0.05-0.25 points. The bank’s deposit rate is now 6.4%. The bank’s management also decided to remove one of the deposits. According to its terms, the bank’s customers could place their funds for three years, the yield was 7% per annum.

     The first two banks left unchanged deposit rates for two months. Russian Agricultural Bank reduced them for the last time in December.

     Bank representatives said that when setting rates, they are guided by Central Bank, which in December reduced rates by 25 points to 6.25%. Mikhail Matovnikov, Sberbank analyst, explained the reduction in interest rates by the fear of banks to suffer losses.

     In November, according to the Central Bank, the key rate on deposits reached its historical minimum and amounted to 6.03%. There were attempts to restore the yield on deposits to the previous level, but in December the Central Bank was forced to continue to bring down the rate to 6.01%, thereby updating the previous record.