Russians withdrew over US$6bn from banks amid Internet disruptions
The outflow of liquidity from the Russian banking system is intensifying amid demand from Russians for cash roubles during periods of mobile internet outages.
Source: The Moscow Times
Details: Last week alone, an additional 121 billion roubles (about US$1.52 billion) were withdrawn from banks.
According to analysts at Russia's Alfa Bank, more than 500 billion roubles (US$6.30 billion) have left the system since the beginning of June.
The Central Bank attributes this trend to disruptions in mobile internet service. The population and businesses want to build up a reserve of cash for payments.
According to the Russian regulator, this is happening against the backdrop of news about new legislation concerning payment monitoring and temporary internet shutdowns in certain regions.
The uneven distribution of liquidity in the banking system is increasing, and a number of banks facing a significant outflow of cash have begun to borrow more from the Central Bank, the statement said.
"Regional officials themselves recommend that citizens withdraw more cash due to interruptions in mobile Internet service, which they attribute to security concerns over threats of drone attacks," the media outlet writes.
For example, against the backdrop of mobile Internet outages, the Primorye authorities advised residents to carry cash with them to pay for transport and shops.
"The Central Bank estimated the banking sector's liquidity surplus at 1.3 trillion roubles (US$16.36 billion) as of 13 August," the report said.
"The regulator still expects banks to transition from a structural liquidity surplus to a deficit within the year and last week lowered its estimate of the deficit at the end of 2025 to 1.1–1.9 trillion roubles (US$13.85–23.90 billion)," The Moscow Times notes.
Background:
- Mobile internet is disappearing en masse in the Urals and Siberia. In Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg and other cities, users are complaining about outages.
- In July, Russia set an anti-record of 1,470 internet outages in a month.
- In Crimea, rolling outages of mobile internet were introduced supposedly to counter drone attacks.
- As of 29 July, there had been no mobile internet in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai for four days. The authorities explained this as an "enhanced security measure".
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