Ruble business: Russians' foreign currency deposits have fallen to a 17-year low

Sanctions have de-dollarized the deposits of Russians. The share of foreign currency deposits has fallen below 7%, which is the lowest figure in at least 17 years, according to Izvestia. In the conditions of restrictions, people themselves tend to transfer their savings into rubles, the Central Bank believes. The movement is also coming from the banks - they are increasingly refusing to work with toxic currencies, and deposits in yuan have not replaced the "American" and "European". However, this does not mean that people have stopped believing in the dollar and euro - they keep their money either at home or on deposits abroad. And savings in dollars "under the pillow", judging by experts' estimates, are much more than on deposits. Is it profitable to keep money in foreign currency at high rates on ruble deposits - in the material of "Izvestia".

Foreign currency deposits in Russia in 2025

The share of foreign currency deposits of Russians has reached the lowest level for at least 17 years, said "Izvestia" in the press service of the Central Bank. In December 2024, it fell to 6.8%. The total volume of deposits at the end of the year reached 40.4 trillion rubles, said Alexei Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group. So, savings in foreign currency amount to about Br2.7 trillion.

Until 2022, the share of deposits in foreign monetary units fluctuated around 20% for several years, but then began to decline rapidly, according to the Central Bank data.

Now, in the conditions of persisting sanctions, people themselves are seeking to devalutize savings, according to the press service of the Bank of Russia. In addition, interest rates on ruble deposits are significantly higher than on foreign currency deposits, they added.

Thus, on deposits in rubles banks now offer an average yield of 18-21% per annum, said leading analyst of Freedom Finance Global Natalia Milchakova. And on deposits in dollars you can earn up to 1.5%. At the same time, under the sanctions financial organizations began to introduce fees for maintaining foreign currency accounts, which are sometimes comparable to the yields of deposits, said chief analyst Sovcombank Anna Zemlyanova.

However, the final profitability of foreign currency deposits is also made up of exchange rate revaluation. As "Izvestia" wrote earlier , in 2024 deposits in dollars and euros were comparable in their benefits with ruble deposits. Thus, at the beginning of 2024 banks opened deposits in rubles for a year at about 14% per annum. At the same time, over the same period, the dollar's exchange rate against the ruble increased by 13% - on January 1, 2024, according to the Central Bank, the American cost 89.7 rubles, and on the first day of 2025 - 101.7 rubles.

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A significant decrease in the share of foreign currency deposits is also due to the fact that after 2022, foreign currencies have become toxic for many Russians, said Natalia Milchakova. People are afraid of new US and EU sanctions, which could theoretically completely ban Russian citizens from currency transactions, even for individuals.

Now there are already significant restrictions, emphasized the director of retail products of the bank "Dom.RF" Daria Morozova. For example, Russians can withdraw currency from accounts that were opened before March 9, 2022, and only within $10 thousand, said Natalia Milchakova. If the deposit was opened after this date, you can get the money only in rubles. Or there is an opportunity to extend the deposit in currency for the term offered by the bank.

However, now it is becoming more and more difficult to open a foreign currency deposit - most Russian credit organizations have actually stopped accepting deposits in dollars and euros, because they do not have active operations in these currencies, explained the director of retail business department of Absolut Bank Vitaly Kostyukevich.

He added: earlier it was "American" and "European" that were the most popular. However, now the majority of such deposits have run out, and financial organizations do not offer new deposits for opening.

However, the statistics on the share of foreign currency deposits was also affected by the growth of savings in rubles, where people carried money because of favorable rates.

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In the foreign exchange market continues to abandon the dollar and euro, confirmed in the press service of VTB. They specified: the share of unfriendly currencies in the savings portfolio of the bank is constantly decreasing. Deposits and accounts of clients in dollars and euros now occupy only 4% of the total volume of classical savings. More than 94% of deposits and accounts are opened in rubles.

In "Sber" the share of deposits in unfriendly currencies for the year decreased by 1.5 p.p., said in the press service, without specifying to what level. At the same time, there are products in rupees, dirhams and yuan among the alternatives. Their share in the total portfolio takes 2%.

In the bank Dom.RF the share of foreign currency deposits is now about 5%, in Absolut Bank - it is already less than 0.5%, and in BBR this figure was called minimal. Depositors are increasingly choosing deposits in friendly currencies and rubles, noted in the press service of "Sinara".

However, the new currencies, which have become actively used by the population for settlements - yuan, tenge, dirhams - do not give such profitability as rubles, concluded Vitaly Kostyukevich from Absolut Bank.

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For example, for deposits in yuan and dirhams, the largest credit organizations offer an average yield of 4.6% and 3%, respectively, said the director of bank ratings "Expert RA" Roman Kornev. Moreover, to get this rate, it is necessary to place money for a long enough period of time - a year or more.

Roman Kornev believes that the share of foreign currency deposits will continue to decline in 2025. In his opinion, by the end of the year it may reach 5-6%.

Where Russians keep dollars

However, the decrease in the share of foreign currency deposits and the transition to deposits in monetary units of friendly countries does not mean that Russians completely abandon dollars and euros. According to Alexei Tarapovsky of Anderida Financial Group, citizens keep at home in "American" and "European" about $100 billion (about 10 trillion rubles in terms of translation). That is, this amount is many times higher than the volume of funds on foreign currency deposits. According to the media, at the beginning of 2024, Russians kept $97.2 billion on their hands.

In addition, the amount of foreign funds that Russians keep abroad is growing, added Maxim Kolyadov, head of retail banking at AMsec24 Insurance Brokerage. Now this amount is about $50-100 billion. This is also due to the fact that many citizens open accounts abroad to pay for goods and services while traveling with a foreign card, explained Alexei Tarapovsky.

But keeping money abroad can be risky, Maxim Kolyadov warned. Firstly, there are political risks - legislation in the state may change. Secondly, exchange rate fluctuations may affect the value of deposits. And thirdly, access to funds may be restricted due to sanctions.

At the same time, when storing cash currency at home, there are also risks. For example, it is possible to spoil a banknote. Banks have almost completely stopped buying dollar cash from the population if it is not in perfect condition, Izvestia wrote earlier.