The forecast of the international rating agency, Standard & Poor's, for the Russian banking industry is poor, because the largest banks, including such industry pillars as Sberbank, VTB Group, Gazprombank, Alfa Bank, etc., are in acute need of additional capitalization, but will not be able to improve their situations in the foreseeable future, the agency said. "According to our estimates, in 2012, the majority of Russia’s largest banks will not be able to generate their own capital that will be sufficient to fuel their assets growth, even if their planned growth rates will be reduced due to increased market competition and the recent turmoil on the financial markets,” S&P credit analyst Sergei Voronenko noted.
According to S&P calculations, only a few of the 30 largest Russian banks’ capitalization as at the end of 2010 could be classified in accordance with the agency’s criteria as ‘adequate or more,’ while the capitalization of most was either moderate or weak. Most Russian banks are undercapitalized because of their large appetite for risk and weak diversification of their core businesses.
Web design,